Primetime Emmy Nominations Announced

The nominees for the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this morning in Los Angeles by Grey’s Anatomy star Chandra Wilson, Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons and Television Academy chair John Shaffner. Among the nominees were some past winners, some past nominees and a few who’ve never had the feeling of “Its just a thrill to be nominated.”

The real surprises were the nominations of both Family Guy and Flight of the Conchords in the “Outstanding Comedy” category, the nomination for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in the “Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs” category (Say that three times fast) as well as the 22 nominations for 30 Rock, which is an Emmy record.

A rules change expanded the number of comedy, drama and key acting category nominees from five to six for which intensified the competition for those extra slots. Ties in the voting actually yielded seven contenders in both series fields so the change in the rules ended up helping out more shows than originally intended. The 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, September 20th at 8/7C on CBS and are hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Here’s the nominees in the major categories:

Outstanding Drama

Mad Men
Damages
House
Lost
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Dexter

Outstanding Comedy

The Office
30 Rock
Family Guy
Entourage
Weeds
How I Met Your Mother
Flight of the Conchords

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama

Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Simon Baker (The Mentalist)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama

Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)
Glenn Close (Damages)
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)
Holly Hunter (Saving Grace)
Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU)

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy

Steve Carell (The Office)
Tony Shalhoub (Monk)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men)
Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory)
Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords)

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy

Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)
Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?)
Sarah Silverman (The Sarah Silverman Program)
Toni Collette (The United States of Tara)
Mary Louise-Parker (Weeds)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama

William Shatner (Boston Legal)
John Slattery (Mad Men)
Christian Clemenson (Boston Legal)
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
William Hurt (Damages)
Michael Emerson (Lost)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama

Rose Byrne (Damages)
Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy)
Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy)
Dianne Wiest (In Treatment)
Hope Davis (In Treatment)
Cherry Jones (24)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Kevin Dillon (Entourage)
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)
Rainn Wilson (The Office)
Jon Cryer (Two And A Half Men)
Tracy Morgan (30 Rock)
Jack McBrayer (30 Rock)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live)
Kristin Wiig (Satruday Night Live)
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies)
Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds)
Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty)

Outstanding Music, Variety, or Comedy

The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
The Late Show with David Letterman
Real Time with Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live

For the complete list, head over here.