2012 Emmy nominations

The nominations for this year's Emmy Awards have been announced and Timothy Olyphant and Justified are noticeably absent.

Neither Olyphant, in his best season yet, or his show made the cut among the nominations for Best Actor and Best Drama.  That's a shame as Justified (FX) was truly outstanding in its third season.

Not surprisingly, Mad Men (AMC) again led the way with nominations for Best Drama, Jon Hamm as Best Actor, Jared Harris as Best Supporting Actor, and Christina Hendricks as Best Supporting Actress.  Thankfully, voters also recognized Homeland (SHO) with nominations for Best Drama, Best Actress (Claire Danes) and Best Actor (Damien Lewis.)

The list of nominees looks more like an Oscars list than an Emmys list, though, as Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton, Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Jessica Lange, Emma Thompson and Kathy Bates all earned nominations for their work on the small screen.

Costner and Paxton received nominations for Hatfields & McCoys, the ratings blockbuster for The History Channel.  Kidman and Owen were nominated for their roles in HBO's Hemingway & Gelhorn.

The recent trend of paid cable networks gaining more and more nominations continued in 2012--HBO received 81 nominations which was far in front of second place CBS' 60 nominations.  HBO shows like Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, along with Veep, pushed the network into the leader for overall nominations.

Were there other big misses, in addition to Justified?  I was surprised that The Good Wife (CBS) did not get a Best Drama nomination.  The show's Julianna Margulies did get a nomination for Best Actress, which she won last year, and former winner Archie Panjabi was again nominated for Best Supporting Actress.  Another miss in the Best Drama category was the lack of nomination for Dexter.

Modern Family (ABC) and 30 Rock (NBC) were the most nominated comedies, as has been the case for the past two years.

The Emmys will be broadcast on ABC on September 23.

(Source:  New York Times, Los Angeles Times)