Tina Fey: In one comedy, out the other

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PASADENA, Calif. -- Tina Fey made it official: As expected, she's leaving NBC's Saturday Night Live to work full-time on 30 Rock, the new sitcom she'll write, produce and star in as a version of herself, a sketch-comedy writer on the fictional Girlie Show.

"I am going to focus just on the new show right now. I've been at Saturday Night Live for nine years total," she told TV writers Saturday. "I know I'll never ever not be there in some way. I'm never not going to call up with an opinion or show up on hiatus wanting to write a sketch. But I will not be in the cast."

Neither will Rachel Dratch, who has a recurring role on the series, which also stars Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan. Producer Lorne Michaels, who is also behind 30 Rock, says he's not happy about losing Fey, "but it was time for Tina to do her own show." He says he'll "experiment" with combinations of Weekend Update anchors.

Later, Fey said, "You can't stay forever. It's not fair. I feel like a senior with a bunch of great freshmen. It was time to let them have their time."

In other news:

*If the ballots for the Television Critics Association's awards had not already been returned before this year's controversial Emmy nominations were announced, you might think the critics were going out of their way to correct a few blatant snubs.

Three non-Emmy nominees took home TCA Awards: Lost for outstanding drama; My Name Is Earl, outstanding new program; and House's Hugh Laurie, individual achievement in drama.

Sunday's top prize, program of the year, went to Grey's Anatomy. Other winners included The Office for comedy; Steve Carell for individual achievement in comedy; High School Musical for children's programming; The West Wing, the Heritage Award; and Carol Burnett, career achievement.

As for those criticized Emmy nominations, Television Academy chairman Dick Askin says the "Blue Ribbon" panels created under the new system will be re-evaluated after the ceremonies Aug. 27.

"It had always been our plan that this would be a one-year test," he says. "What we're going to do is sit down and compare the popular vote for the nominations to the Blue Ribbon panels and see how much we actually deviated from the two."

*NBC is talking to Jay Leno about continuing in some role after he is replaced by Conan O'Brien as The Tonight Show host in 2009. The "workaholic" Leno, however, is "not interested in doing specials," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says.

*NBC may resurrect Nobody's Watching, a failed WB sitcom pilot that gained new attention when someone associated with the project uploaded the episode to YouTube. NBC's studio had produced it and now has commissioned lead actors from the show to appear in "webisodes" in September. Watching was created by Scrubs' Bill Lawrence.

*NBC plans a staggered rollout of the new season, which begins Sept. 18 with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, its most touted new series. 30 Rock will wait until Oct. 11 to bow; Crossing Jordan and Las Vegas return Oct. 20. The season's first week will feature five hours (over four nights) of Deal or No Deal, the Howie Mandel-hosted game show.

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