Networks dominate 2012 Emmy nominations

Added by Monique Robinson on July 19, 2012

Nominations for the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on Thursday. Nominees include Modern Family, 30 Rock, Breaking Bad, Downtown Abbey, none of which industry insiders say are much of a shock.

Shows on premium and basic cable got five out of six best drama series slots- sixth went to PBS. Networks that dominated the comedy genre last year, lost about half of their nominations to series on HBO including “Girls,” ”Veep” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

This year’s nominees deliver a few surprises – good news for those of us that hate viewing basically the exact same award ceremony each year. Among them:

“Mad Men” could end up making Emmy history with 17 nominations; “Girls” – a comedy with actor Lena Dunham nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series – got a total five nominations – widening the gap between broadcast networks and cable.

Fan favorite “The Walking Dead” is nominated for three awards – none in major categories. Nominations include outstanding prosthetic makeup, sound editing and visual effects.

Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik is nominated for Supporting Actress, Comedy Series, with co-star Jim Parsons is nominated for Lead Actor, Comedy Series; The Big Bang Theory received a total of five nominations
A Best Supporting Actor nomination went to Bill Hader for Saturday Night Live; the program received 14 total nominations.

Matthew Weiner, “Mad Men” creator, on the show’s 17 nominations said, “Zooey and I are coordinating outfits right now. We’re trying to figure out what we’re gonna wear. We obviously don’t wanna wear the same thing. Can you imagine how embarrassing thatwould be? We want to let you know, ‘Yes, we’re on the same show.’ There might be some coordination between the two outfits. We just want to make sure they’re showstoppers.”

Lead actress Zooey Deschanel – also nominated for “New Girl” – responded to her nomination saying, “I was pretending to sleep. It wasn’t going very well. I instructed everyone to not call me because I didn’t want any condolence calls. I didn’t want to pick them up thinking it was an exciting call, only to find out […] it didn’t happen. Then, my manager called me, and I screamed a lot. A lot. With great excitement.”

HBO has 81 nominations; CBS with 60 nominations – the highest number of nominations for a network; PBS got 58 nominations; NBC with 51; ABC has 48; AMC with 34, Fox got 26; Showtime received 22 nominations.

The 2012 Emmy Awards will be broadcast on September 23, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.