AND NOW, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS ON NEW CATEGORY.

Walking toasters and talking chimps are getting recognition from the Emmys this year, and we're not referring to the acting abilities of TV stars.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it has added an 82nd category (81 categories simply aren't enough) this year - best commercial.

``Commercials are actually at the cutting edge of film and tape production,'' says academy spokesman Murray Weissman. ``An average 30-second commercial costs $250,000 to produce. If you used that kind of production value in a half-hour show it would cost $12 million.''

Five spots were nominated for the honor:

GM's ``Appliances,'' an electric car ad featuring envious, animated appliances.

HBO's ``Chimps,'' a spoof on primate-observer Jane Goodall in which chimps quote lines from ``Rocky,'' ``Network'' and ``The Godfather.''

Nike's ``Hello World'' with Tiger Woods reciting a list of his accomplishments and the fact that white-only golf courses won't let him play.

Levi's ``Doctor'' with surgeons singing ``Tainted Love'' while a hapless man on an operating table looks on.

Levi's ``Elevator,'' in which a man looks at a woman in an elevator and fantasizes a relationship from start to finish before the doors open.

The five nominated entries were culled from a field of 237, says Sheila Manning, a casting company president who spearheaded the effort to include a commercial category. TV commercials are a $4 billion-a-year industry and 90 percent of the Screen Actors Guild's working actors derive their incomes from commercials.

The handing out the first-ever commercial Emmy, however, won't be televised: It will be awarded on Sept. 7 at the nontelevised technical honors.