Going into this year’s Rockie awards, Canadians again dominate the lifestyle and interactive categories, but were shut out of comedy when nominations for the annual honors were announced Thursday by organizers at the Banff World Television Festival.

In all, Canucks received 21 nominations — just behind the U.S. with 22, and the U.K., leading with 35 — and took four of the six nods in lifestyle.

Til Debt Us Do Part, from Money Test 4 Productions, and the fat-fighting X-Weighted by Weight To Go II Productions are up against Red Apple Entertainment’s Chef School and Colin and Justin’s Home Heist from prodcos Cineflix, Nextfilm and Media Productions. Til Debt and X-Weighted air on Slice, Chef on Food Network Canada and Home Heist on HGTV.

They face Channel 4’s How to Look Good Naked and National Body Challenge: The Dawkins Twins, seen on Discovery Health Channel in the U.S.

EyeSteelFilm’s acclaimed Up the Yangtze is nom’d in the social/humanitarian doc category alongside the French-language Le voyage d’une vie, from Montreal’s Lowik Media, and Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma, from Toronto’s White Pine Pictures. Please Vote for Me, a doc about elections at a Chinese grade school that is part of the Why Democracy? series, is also in the running.

White Pine also received a nod for ‘mobile program enhancement’ for the add-ons for its CBC series The Border.

In the interactive category, Xenophile Media’s Total Drama Island: Totally Interactive grabbed a nomination, as did Odd Job Jack from Toronto’s Smiley Guy Studios.

Canada is absent in the comedy category for the first time in recent years, which this year handed noms to Big Bang Theory and Desperate Housewives, among others. Last year saw noms for both The Rick Mercer Report and Little Mosque on the Prairie.

In the continuing series category, usually dominated by U.S. shows, only FX’s Nip/Tuck was named, up against five U.K. series — Life on Mars, The Street, Skins and Time of Your Life.

Other notable Canuck nominations include CCI Entertainment’s Erky Perky, up for best animation for the episode ‘A Zen Tale,’ while The Comedy Network’s game show Keys to the VIP, from Toronto’s Buck Productions, is up for reality format program.

Banff director Jennifer Harkness commented in a release that the more than 900 entries received this year ‘proves the awards’ continued growth and recognition within our international television community.’

The Banff festival runs June 8-11, and will hand out the Rockies on June 9.