Multicultural sketchcom series Caution: May Contain Nuts dominated the performance category nominees for the 12^th annual Canadian Comedy Awards, unveiled at The Second City Toronto on Tuesday afternoon.

The series from Edmonton’s Mosaic Entertainment received nods in the male, female and ensemble TV performance categories for Howie Miller, Aimee Beaudoin, along with the rest of the cast.

Nuts (pictured) has also been nominated for best TV show, a category that will be voted on by the public, joined by fellow nominees Living in Your Car, This Movie Sucks!, Fancy and Call Me Fitz.

Along with best film, the two categories are new additions in which the voting public will decide the winners, along with existing categories best web clip, best radio program/clip and comedy person of the year.

President of the Canadian Comedy Foundation for Excellence Tim Progosh says that submissions to the Canadian Comedy Awards were up a whopping 86% this year, and 2010 already saw a record number of nomination submissions.

“Last year was the first time we’d held the awards in Toronto in seven years, so that definitely helped raise awareness,” Progosh tells Playback Daily. “We’ve brought the awards to cities like Regina and Saint John in past years, so everyone sees it as national.”

He adds that a lot of the nominees came from both the East and West Coasts, and that the number of jurors has spiked to 120, up from 80 last year, with an aim to hit 150 jurors next year.

The nominees were announced by actors Sean Cullen and Paul Bates. Other multiple nods include last year’s big winner Less Than Kind (James Dunnison for direction – TV, Brooke Palsson for female performance and best TV show), while 18 to Life, Call Me Fitz, Men With Brooms and The Debaters each came away with a pair of noms.

On the film front, Peepers was recognized in each category, including best film, male and female performance (Joe Cobden and Janine Theriault), direction (Seth W. Owen) and writing (Owen, Mark Slutsky, Daniel Perlmutter). Jacob Tierney’s Good Neighbours and Jacob Medjuck’s Summerhood each saw four nods.

The 12^th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards will take place in Toronto on Oct. 17.