Not everyone is thrilled on Wisteria Lane

Things are never quite perfect on Wisteria Lane, even when “Desperate Housewives” lands 15 Emmy nominations in its first year. Sure, there was that nod for best comedy series, and a writing acknowledgment for creator Marc Cherry, who concocted the dark comedic soap out of his relationship with his mother. But the academy followed in the footsteps of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and excluded Eva Longoria while acknowledging her three cohorts, Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman, for lead actress.

And that left Cherry and company feeling a little wistful as they celebrated the show’s other triumphs.

“It’s tough enough to get three actresses nominated,” said Cherry, who watched the nominations on CNN by himself and didn’t realize he had been nominated until a producer on the show told him. “Had we been able to get Eva, it would have been unprecedented. I wish we had gotten that because she’s done marvelous work to bring that character to life, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for her for next year.”

In a television season in which three new ABC ensemble series -- “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy” -- attracted viewers in droves, peer approval was icing on the cake for the actors, writers and producers involved. “Lost” received 12 nominations, including best drama, and “Grey’s” earned three Emmy nods. But the shows’ sprawling casts posed a challenge in the nomination process. It means some actors on the same shows will be competing with each other, with others opting to enter in supporting categories that might make it easier to win.

For the ladies of Wisteria Lane, Cross said, there was no question: The four actresses are featured equally in the series and all deserve to be in the lead category.

“Eva is not a supporting player, she’s definitely a lead, so there really is no question as to what category she should be in,” Cross said. “Sure, it would be wonderful for us all to be nominated, but Eva Longoria is in Toronto shooting a movie with Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. And she’s only 30 and is on a meteoric rise, and she’s going to leave us all in the dust. Because we got so many nominations, it’s a true recognition of the work we are all doing, so we are all very excited today.”

Touchstone Television’s decision to throw “Desperate Housewives” into the awards race as a comedy, starting with the Golden Globes last year, surprised Cherry. In recent years, “Ally McBeal,” a one-hour legal show, won in the comedy category, paving the way for offbeat shows like “Desperate Housewives” that defy categorization.

“Television is evolving, the academy is evolving and people are realizing that viewers are evolving,” said Mark Pedowitz, president of Touchstone Television, which produces “Desperate,” “Lost” and “Grey’s.” “You have a generation of people” whose view of drama and comedy is filtered through the prism of such reality shows as MTV’s “The Real World,” “and there’s been an evolution growing from that.”

Cherry, who has been publicly ambivalent about the decision to enter in comedy rather than drama, said he was feeling more comfortable with it now that the industry has supported it.

“I’ve always felt we weren’t a good fit with drama and not a perfect fit with comedy because we have our own tonality,” Cherry said. “I’m sure it’s a little odd to people that we’re in comedy, but our show is a little odd, so that’s OK.”

The challenge with “Lost,” an ensemble with 14 characters that reveals the back story of one character per week in flashbacks, was deciding who could compete in the lead category and who would be better suited for supporting roles. Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly threw themselves into the lead actor races; the rest of the cast competed for supporting nominations. Only Terry O’Quinn, who plays Locke, the voice of the island, and Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid, an Iraqi soldier and romantic hero, were nominated.

“What we do is really a group effort,” Andrews said. “It’s not like a film, is it? Every episode is different, and in every episode, who is in the forefront is different. I’m a Londoner, and for me to receive this acknowledgment from a country I’ve chosen to make my home is quite special and makes me feel I’ve made the right move.”