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HBO Dominates as Emmy Nominations Are Revealed; What’s the Biggest Surprise? (See the Complete List of Nominees)

Jul 19, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Pay-cable network HBO reigned supreme as the Emmy nominations were announced today, claiming a whopping total of 81 nominations, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced.

No other cable network came close — AMC was second with 34, followed by FX with 26 and Showtime with 22 — while the broadcasters — led by CBS’s 60 nominations and PBS’s 58 — weren’t quite in the ballpark either. NBC had 51 nods, followed by ABC with 48 and Fox with 26.

Among individual programs, AMC’s “Mad Men” led all drama series with 17 nods, while ABC’s “Modern Family” topped the comedies with 14. The FX miniseries “American Horror Story” also received 17 nominations, while History’s "Hatfields & McCoys" earned 16.

Other heavyweights included the PBS drama "Downton Abbey" with 16 nominations, the HBO movie “Hemingway & Gelhorn” with 15 and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with 14 nods. “SNL” is the all-time leader in Emmy nominations with 156, followed by “ER” (124) and “Cheers” (117).

The biggest surprise from the nominations announcement may have come in the outstanding reality-competition series category. The rivalry between NBC’s singing competition “The Voice” and Fox’s perennial nominee “American Idol” moved to the awards arena, where “The Voice” received its first nomination in the category — apparently knocking “Idol” off the list. It’s the first time since 2003, when the category was introduced, that “Idol” won’t be in the running.

The other nominees in the category are “Project Runway,” “Top Chef,” “The Amazing Race,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars.”

Nominees for outstanding comedy series are “The Big Bang Theory,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Girls,” “Modern Family,” “30 Rock” and “Veep.”

Outstanding drama series nominees are “Boardwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad,” “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland” and “Mad Men.”

Click here to see the complete list of nominations.

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