Ed O'Neill finally got his Emmy recognition. Katey Sagal didn't. Last year's top female was MIA. And as usual, the Emmy nominations were a case of all HBO, all the time.
The cable giant, whose domination of the Primetime Emmy Awards has long irritated executives at the broadcast networks who take turns televising the Emmys, once again far outdistanced its competitors when nominations were announced on Thursday morning.
Also read: 'Mildred Pierce,' 'Mad Men' Lead Emmy Nominations
HBO racked up 104 nominations, more than double the total for its closest competitors, CBS (50), NBC (46), PBS (43), Fox (42) and ABC (40).
This was an even more dominant showing than 2010, when HBO had 101 nominations to 63 for ABC and 57 for CBS.
Not only did HBO claim the most-nominated program in the miniseries "Mildred Pierce," which received 21 nods, but it had the third-most-nominated show, "Boardwalk Empire" with 18, and two more of the Top 10, "Game of Thrones" (13 nominations) and "Too Big to Fail" (11).
Also read: Emmys: The Complete List of Nominations
"Game of Thrones" was perhaps the biggest surprise among the channel's nominees, with its Outstanding Drama Series nomination no doubt benefiting from the fact that no new episodes of AMC's "Breaking Bad" were aired during the eligibility period.
That show's absence also meant that its star, Bryan Cranston, was ineligible after wining the Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy for the past three years – opening the door for Timothy Olyphant from FX's acclaimed new series "Justified" to claim one of the slots.
Also slipping into the Drama Series category: "Friday Night Lights," which had been nominated for acting in the past but which picked up its first series nod for its final season, which aired on DirecTV. (Critically acclaimed but anemic in the ratings, the series had originally aired on NBC.)
In the comedy categories, the feel-good story of the morning was Ed O'Neill (right) and "Modern Family," a series whose top six actors all submitted their names in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories to emphasize that theirs is a true ensemble cast.
Last year, that strategy resulted in nominations for everyone except O'Neill – who, as the family patriarch, could have legitimately entered himself in the Lead Actor category and probably had a better chance.
This time around, though, O'Neill, who had never been nominated despite his years on "Married … With Children," joined co-stars Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ty Burrell in giving "Modern Family" four of the six nominations in the Supporting Actor in a Comedy category. The show's Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara, meanwhile, both made the cut in the Supporting Actress field.
But O'Neill's former "Married … With Children" costar Katey Sagal wasn't so fortunate. Another performer who's never been nominated despite a long career, she was once again passed over despite strong notices for her role in "Sons of Anarchy."
