The 61st Primetime Emmy award nominations gave plenty of shout-outs to two shows familiar with the winners circle.
AMC's "Mad Men" looks set to relive history as drama champ, while "30 Rock" could very well repeat in the comedy category.
"Mad Men," with 16 nominations (most for any drama this year), was joined by "Dexter," "Big Love," "Damages," "Lost," "Breaking Bad" and "House" as drama nominees.
NBC's "30 Rock," which won the top comedy honor last year, hauled in a comedy-record 22 nominations -- leading all shows -- and was joined by "Family Guy," "Entourage," "Flight of the Conchords," "How I Met Your Mother," "The Office" and "Weeds" as top laffer nominees.
The top categories -- and some of the acting categories -- were expanded to include six shows, though ties actually helped to produce seven contenders for both best drama and best comedy.
HBO led all networks with a whopping 99 nominations.
NBC was next with 67, and CBS had 49. As for "bests," Showtime saw the highest nomination total in its history, with 29. AMC also had the most in its lifespan, with 23.
The nominations were notable for some unique contenders that joined the party: Fox's animated "Family Guy" and HBO's musical-variety hybrid "Flight of the Conchords" landed best comedy nods. CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" and Showtime's "Weeds" were also first-time comedy nominees.
"Family Guy," from creator Seth MacFarlane, is the first animated show since "The Flinstones" in 1961 to get a best comedy nomination. Fox and MacFarlane made a concerted effort during the nomination campaign to get the voters to pay attention to it this year.
As for the dramas, the only thing really noteworthy was that, like last year, cable dominated. Only two of the shows -- "Lost" and "House" -- were from networks.
HBO's dominance continues to be longform fare, with the pay-cable network garnering three of the five movie slots: "Grey Gardens" (which got 17 nominations), "Taking Chance" and "Into the Storm."
In the reality competition category, the contenders are six-time champ "The Amazing Race," "American Idol," "Dancing With The Stars," "Project Runway" and "Top Chef."
It was hard to find any new blood acting-wise, as only Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men") and Simon Baker ("The Mentalist") were first-time nominees in the lead drama categories.
Moss joins Mariska Hargitay, Sally Field, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Kyra Sedgwick, while Baker sits alongside Gabriel Byrne, Michael C. Hall, Jon Hamm, Hugh Laurie and Bryan Cranston.
Farrah Fawcett was posthumously nominated for in the outstanding nonfiction special category for "Farrah's Story," the NBC documentary about her battle with cancer.
HBO's Generation Kill" and PBS' "Little Dorritt" are the only miniseries contenders out of seven contenders, and it showcases the TV Academy's "one-third" rule: The number of nominees can't exceed 33% of the entries.
The nominations were announced by "Grey's Anatomy" star Chandra Wilson and "The Big Bang Theory" star Jim Parsons from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences n North Hollywood.
