The Fox Network TV show The Simpsons beat Comedy Central’s South Park in the race for the Emmy award for Best Animated Series.

This was the ninth such win for The Simpsons.

A South Park episode, "Trapped in the Closet," was nominated for the award and received a good deal of attention because of protests by the Church of Scientology, which had objected to the showing last November of the episode mocking actor Tom Cruise. Instead of airing a rerun of the episode in March, as scheduled, Comedy Central refused to run the show, apparently buckling under the pressure from the Scientologists and Mr. Cruise, whose film Mission Impossible 3 was produced by Paramount Pictures, which, like Comedy Central, is owned by Viacom. South Park writer-producers Matt Stone and Trey Parker say they believe Cruise threatened to pull out of promotion for the film. Both Cruise’s representatives and Paramount say they had nothing to do with the spiking of the program.

The episode is hilarious, as those who missed it will find out when it appears on DVD. 

The animated series award was given, as is the academy’s custom, in the ceremony honoring technical achievements. The primetime Emmy Awards will be given out on August 27.

Update: In the comments section for this article, comenter Matt notes, "now that MI3 has come and gone from the theaters and Viacom doesn’t need Cruise to do promotional work for them anymore, the episode in question is back in rotation." That confirms our conclusion about Comedy Central’s motives in cancelling the episode’s rerun." Thanks, Matt.