Mildred Pierce, Mad Men Lead Emmy Nominations

LOS ANGELES: HBO’s Mildred Pierce scored the most Emmy Award nominations this year with a total of 21, including outstanding mini-series or movie, followed by AMC’s Mad Men, which is up for contention as outstanding drama series, with 19.

In the drama series category, Mad Men is up against HBO’s Boardwalk Empire—which secured 18 nods in total—and Game of Thrones, Showtime’s Dexter, DIRECTV’s Friday Night Lights and CBS’s The Good Wife. Boardwalk Empire also garnered a nomination for Steve Buscemi as lead actor, a group that also includes Michael C. Hall for Dexter, Hugh Laurie for House, Kyle Chandler for the last season of Friday Night Lights, Timothy Olyphant for FX’s Justified and Jon Hamm for Mad Men. AMC’s The Killing garnered a lead actress nod for Mireille Enos, who is up against Friday Night Lights‘ Connie Britton, The Good Wife‘s Julianna Margulies, Harry’s Law‘s Kathy Bates, Law & Order: SVU‘s Mariska Hargitay and Mad Men‘s Elisabeth Moss. Two stars from The Good Wife are up for outstanding supporting actor: Josh Charles and Alan Cumming, alongside Peter Dinklage for Game of Thrones, Walton Goggins for Justified, John Slattery for Mad Men and Andre Braugher for Men of a Certain Age. For supporting actress, the nominees are Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), Archie Panjabi and Christine Baranski (The Good Wife), Margo Martindale (Justified), Michelle Forbes (The Killing) and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men).

In the outstanding comedy series category, ABC Modern Family, which was nominated for 17 awards, is facing off against CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, FOX’s Glee and three NBC shows: The Office, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock. For lead actor, nods went to Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki of The Big Bang Theory, Matt LeBlanc for Showtime’s Episodes, Louie C.K. for FX’s Louie, Steve Carell for his last season on The Office and Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock. The lead actress contenders are Laura Linney (The Big C), Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly), Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation), Martha Plimpton (Raising Hope) and Tiny Fey (30 Rock). In the supporting categories, the actor contenders are Chris Colfer of Glee, Jon Cryer from Two and a Half Men and four Modern Family stars: Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ed O’Neill, Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burell; the actress contenders are Jane Lynch (Glee), Betty White (Hot in Cleveland), Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family), Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Life) and Jane Krakowski (30 Rock).

HBO has three entries in the outstanding mini-series or movie category: Mildred Pierce, Too Big to Fail and Cinema Verite. Also in contention are PBS’s Brit import Downton Abbey, ReelzChannel’s The Kennedys and Starz’s The Pillars of the Earth. Lead actor nominees in the mini-series or movie category are Edgar Ramirez in Sundance’s Carlos, Greg Kinnear and Barry Pepper for The Kennedys, Idris Elba for BBC America’s Luther, Laurence Fishburne for HBO’s Thurgood and William Hurt for Too Big to Fail. For lead actress, nominations went to Diane Lane (Cinema Verite), Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey), Kate Winslet (Mildred Pierce), Taraji P. Henson (Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story) and Jean Marsh (Upstairs Downstairs).

The nominees for outstanding animated program are FOX’s The Cleveland Show and The Simpsons, Comedy Central’s South Park and Futurama and Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. For nonfiction series, the titles under consideration are PBS’s American Masters, Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, BIO’s Biography, TCM’s Moguls & Movie Stars, ESPN’s 30 for 30 and PBS’s Pioneers of Television. The outstanding reality program nods went to PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, Discovery’s Deadliest Catch and MythBusters, A&E’s Hoarders, Bravo’s Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and CBS’s Undercover Boss. For reality competition, CBS’s The Amazing Race is up against FOX’s American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Lifetime’s Project Runway and Bravo’s Top Chef.