American Horror Story, Mad Men Top Emmy Nominations

LOS ANGELES: FX’s American Horror Story and AMC’s Mad Men each scored a total of 17 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, followed by Downton Abbey and Hatfields & McCoys with 16 each.

Mad Men and Downton Abbey are both up for outstanding drama, alongside Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and Homeland. While none of the broadcast networks are included in the outstanding drama category, they did shore up nods in the performance categories. For best actress, The Good Wife‘s Julianna Margulies and Kathy Bates of the canned Harry’s Law are up against Damages‘ Glenn Close, Downton Abbey‘s Michelle Dockery, Homeland‘s Claire Danes and Mad Men‘s Elisabeth Moss. For outstanding lead actor, meanwhile, the contenders are Boardwalk Empire‘s Steve Buscemi, Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, Dexter‘s Michael C. Hall, Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville, Homeland‘s Damian Lewis and Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm.

HBO dominates the outstanding comedy series category with three shows: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Girls and Veep. Rounding out the category are CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s 30 Rock. In the performance category, lead actress nods went to Girls‘ Lena Dunham, Mike & Molly‘s Melissa McCarthy, New Girl‘s Zooey Deschanel, Nurse Jackie‘s Edie Falco, Parks and Recreation‘s Amy Poehler, 30 Rock’s Tiny Fey and Veep‘s Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Lead actor in a comedy series nominees are Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons, Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s Larry David, House of Lies‘ Don Cheadle, Louie‘s Louis C.K., 30 Rock‘s Alec Baldwin and Two and a Half Men‘s Jon Cryer.

In the outstanding mini-series or movie category, American Horror Story and Hatfields & McCoys are up against Game Change, Hemingway & Gellhorn, Luther and Sherlock. Performance nods went to Connie Britton, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ashley Judd and Emma Thompson for lead actress and Woody Harrelson, Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton, Clive Oven, Benedict Cumberbatch and Idris Elba for lead actor.

The nominees for outstanding reality program are Antiques Roadshow, Food Revolution, MythBusters, Shark Tank, Who Do You Think You Are? and Undercover Boss. Frequent reality-competition category winner The Amazing Race has been nominated again, alongside Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef and The Voice. And for nonfiction series, the contenders are American Masters, No Reservations, Frozen Planet, Inside the Actors Studio and The Weight of the Nation. In the outstanding children’s program category, the nominees are Degrassi, Good Luck Charlie, iCarly, Victorious and Wizards of Waverly Place.

By network, HBO again dominates, with a total of 81 nominations, while NBC in distant second has 61. CBS has 60, PBS 58, ABC 48 and FOX 26. Others with double-digit nods are AMC (34), FX (26), Showtime (22) and HISTORY (17).

The Primetime Emmys will be presented September 23, broadcast on ABC.