'Thrones' tops Emmy nominees, joining 'Orange,' 'Fargo'
HBO's True Detective and two original Netflix series, Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, are in the mix as Emmy nominations were revealed early Thursday in Los Angeles.
Detective and Cards will compete against HBO's Game of Thrones, PBS's Downton Abbey, AMC's Mad Men and the final season of AMC's Breaking Bad in the drama category.
And Orange, submitted as a comedy, will face ABC's four-time winner Modern Family, CBS's The Big Bang Theory, FX's Louie and HBO's Veep and new tech-world satire Silicon Valley.
Other first-time contenders were peppered through acting categories, including best-drama actress Lizzy Caplan of Showtime's Masters of Sex,Orange star Taylor Schilling, and early favorite Matthew McConaughey, who along with co-star Woody Harrelson was nominated for Detective.
Thrones earned 19 nominations, the most of any series, followed by two FX miniseries: Fargo, with 18, and American Horror Story: Coven, with 17. And HBO once again dominated the list of nominees with 99, followed by CBS's 47 and NBC's 46, though Netflix had an impressive 31 in only its second year as an original programmer. Cards nabbed 13, including those for lead actors Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.
Cable continued to dominate the awards: Commercial broadcast networks claimed just two of six comedy slots, and were shut out of the drama and (as usual) movie and miniseries categories.
Left out as series contenders were CBS's The Good Wife (though star Julianna Margulies and supporting players Christine Baranski and Josh Charles were nominated); HBO's Girls (though Lena Dunham and Adam Driver were); Showtime's Homeland (though Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin were); and Fox's Golden Globe-winning Brooklyn Nine-Nine and its star, Andy Samberg (though supporting actor Andre Braugher won a nod).
But there was more than the usual juggling of categories this year to maximize shows' chances of success. Orange was entered as a comedy to avoid competing against Cards. Detective, an eight-episode limited series expected to return with an entirely new cast, was entered as a drama, while the similarly structured Horror Story and Fargo competed as miniseries. And Portlandia star Fred Armisen was nominated as supporting actor.
Fargo picked up four major acting nods, for lead actors Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman and supporting players Colin Hanks and Allison Tolman. Orange's Kate Mulgrew will compete as supporting actress and three more favorites were nominated as guest actresses: Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox and Natasha Lyonne. And Masters guest stars Beau Bridges and Allison Janney joined Caplan as nominees (Janney also was nominated for CBS comedy Mom).
Other miniseries contenders are BBC America's Luther, Starz's The White Queen, Lifetime's Bonnie and Clyde and HBO's final season of Treme. Made-for-TV movie nominees were HBO's early favorite, The Normal Heart, PBS's Sherlock: The Last Vow, National Geographic's Killing Kennedy, Lifetime's The Trip to Bountiful and HBO's Muhammad Ali's Last Fight.
Vying for reality competition series Emmys are last year's winner The Voice, recordholder The Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance. Among variety shows, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Real Time with Bill Maher are competing.
The 66th annual Primetime Emmys will be awarded Aug. 25 at 8 ET/5 PT on NBC, with Seth Meyers hosting.