LOS ANGELES – Newcomers “Heroes” and “Ugly Betty” vied for a share of Emmy nominations along with previous favorites “24” and “The Office.”

Bids for the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were to be announced early Thursday by past Emmy nominees Jon Cryer (“Two and a Half Men”) and Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”).

In June, judges screening potential nominees for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences made their picks from a list of 10 top contenders for the best drama and best comedy series categories.

The top 10 lists given to the judges were based on polling of the general academy membership. Five nominees in each category ultimately were to be chosen, based on a combination of the panelists’ votes and the general polling.

A brief ceremony focused on nominees in the top categories was set for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre, with the academy’s chairman, Dick Askin, joining Sedgwick and Cryer.

The three-hour Emmy Awards ceremony will be broadcast Sept. 16 by Fox from the Shrine Auditorium.

Other Emmy honors, including those for technical achievement and guest actors and actresses in series, will be given at the creative arts ceremony on Sept. 8.

On the Net:

http://www.emmys.org

A service of the Associated Press(AP)