Conan O'Brien hosts the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards tomorrow night at 7 on NBC.

The event is earlier than usual this year, but that's not the only difference in this year's Emmy Awards. Those in charge of the ceremony are under fire because of a new voting process that resulted in the exclusion of some all-but-certain nominees. Prominent omissions include the main Desperate Housewives actresses and House title star Hugh Laurie.

NBC airs the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards tomorrow, from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Late-night staple Conan O'Brien reprises his host role from 2002; tributes to veteran home-screen personality Dick Clark and the late producer Aaron Spelling will be among the highlights.

Past Emmy recipients

Scheduled presenters include the aforementioned Laurie, 2005 Emmy winner Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Kiefer Sutherland (24), Dennis Haysbert (The Unit), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Matthew Perry, Jon Stewart, Evangeline Lilly (Lost), Heidi Klum, and past Emmy recipients James Gandolfini and Edie Falco - neither of whom is in the running for The Sopranos this time.

Dick Askin, the former Tribune Entertainment chief who now heads the Emmy-giving Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, acknowledges the stir generated by a second wave of voting in which a 'blue-ribbon panel' chose the final nominees. Holders of various television jobs could weigh in on all categories, instead of actors only voting for actors and so forth.

"The purpose of making the change," Askin explains, "was really to get away from the criticism - which I think was valid for many years - that the Emmys had a sameness. It was always the same shows and the same people (as nominees), to the detriment to a lot of the smaller or newer shows, or shows on cable networks.

"It was really more about omissions, I think, than inclusions," Askin says of the current Emmy brouhaha. "It had always been our plan that this would be a one-year test. What we're going to do is sit down and take a look and compare the popular vote for the nominations to the blue-ribbon panel's and see how much we actually deviated."

Emmy-night remarks

O'Brien vows to fit the controversy into his Emmy-night remarks. However, since one gag last time found him professing love for Jennifer Aniston in front of her then-husband, Brad Pitt, he'll likely shy away from pitching such woo this year.

"Well, yes, I think it's clear that I was responsible for whatever troubles they had in their relationship," quips Jay Leno's future Tonight Show successor. "I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise."

As for judging a series' Emmy worth by watching only a relative handful of episodes, as the blue-ribbon panelists did, O'Brien mock-approves.

Injections of protein

"Would that mean that someone would have to watch all 108 episodes that I made throughout the year? That's a great idea! They're sent to some sort of centre or camp, and every day, they watch about 15 episodes of my show. Like veal, they're fed injections of protein, kept in a dark room."

Meanwhile, Askin leaves industry members responsible for who is or isn't up for an Emmy. "I believe the nominations really represent the best works submitted and evaluated for last season," he maintains. "I think because it is a new process, and maybe some of the producers who were submitting the tapes didn't understand, in one or two incidents, a better episode that was more representative of the best work of the season would have changed some of the nominations.