Cable TV Hands Out Annual Ace Awards

``The 11th annual ACE Awards,'' 5 p.m. Sunday on AMC, TBS, Discovery and TNT, and 8 p.m. on Nickelodeon, all on cable.

Qualifying as the first big awards show of 1990 is this Sunday night's 11th annual ACE Awards, when the best of cable programming is honored. Even though cable programming is now eligible for Emmy Awards, the cable channels are maintaining their identity through their own awards.

Just like its big brother's Emmys, cable's ACE Awards will be given in 82 categories and cover all bases: entertainment, news, sports and information. But not to worry: Most of the lesser awards were presented at a dinner Friday night, and only about 25 of the most important awards will be presented in tonight's live telecast, produced by Dick Clark.

This year there were 1,507 entries submitted, and the 338 nominations that made it are divided among 30 cable program networks. HBO received 103 nominations, way ahead of Showtime's 29, The Disney Channel's 23 and A&E's 21. Next in line was CNN with 18 nominations.

More important, however, is that CNN is receiving this year's ``Golden Ace'' Award, the cable industry's highest honor, for its comprehensive coverage of events in China. In addition, CNN anchor Bernard Shaw has been nominated for his participation in that coverage.

HBO productions with multiple nominations include ``Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story'' (10 nominations), ``Vietnam War Story'' (eight), ``Not Necessarily the News'' (five), the ``One Night Stand'' comedy series (five), the ``Glory! Glory!'' miniseries (six), ``Dead Man Out'' TV movie (five) - but the most nominations went to HBO's tacky ``Tales from the Crypt'' series (16). It's clear ACE members are just as willing to nominate junk as are Emmy nominators.

Showtime's ``It's Garry Shandling's Show'' received seven nominations, while The Disney Channel's charming movie, ``Danny, Champion of the World,'' garnered five, as did TNT's ``Nightbreaker'' TV movie, the ``Molly Dodd'' series on Lifetime, A&E's ``Stage'' series and USA's ``The Ray Bradbury Theater.''

Competing in the movie or miniseries category, besides ``Murderers Among Us'' and ``Nightbreaker,'' are The Disney Channel's splendid ``Looking for Miracles'' and HBO's ``Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy'' and ``Traveling Man.'' Competing as best actor in a movie or miniseries are Ruben Blades, Ben Kingsley, John Lithgow, Jason Robards and Richard Thomas, all of whom appeared in HBO productions. Actresses competing in the movie or miniseries category are Ellen Green (``Glory! Glory!''), Julie Harris (``A Christmas Wife''), Vanessa Redgrave (TNT's new ``A Man for All Seasons''), Lea Thompson (``Nightbreaker'') and Renee Soutendijk (``Murderers Among Us'').