‘Game of Thrones’ earns a leading 23 Emmy Award nominations

“I jumped up and down. more about that than about my own”, Paulson said.

“Game of Thrones” will compete in a seven-way race for best drama with Showtime’s Central Intelligence Agency thriller “Homeland”, FX’s Cold War espionage saga “The Americans“, AMC’s quirky legal story “Better Call Saul”, the final season of PBS’s period melodrama “Downton Abbey”, Netflix’s political mystery “House of Cards“, and USA Network’s new computer-hacking tale “Mr. Robot”. HBO’s Veep led comedy contenders with 17.

Aside from Veep, for which Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a multiple victor, top comedy contenders are its companion series, HBO’s Silicon Valley, Amazon’s Transparent, ABC’s Black-ish and Modern Family and Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

For the sixth year in a row, Thrones was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series (which it won at last year’s Emmys).

Overall, HBO’s popular series “Game of Thrones” earned the most nominations of any show, with 23 nods – including best drama – followed by “The People v. O.J. Simpson”, which earned 22.

Some key nominees in the six lead performer categories are either first-time nominees, or familiar names with multiple nominations.

Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Kyle Chandler, Bloodline; Rami Malek, Mr Robot; Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul; Matthew Rhys, The Americans; Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan; and Kevin Spacey, House of Cards.

This year’s announcer Anderson was especially effusive as his name was called as a nominee for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series along with Aziz Ansari, Will Forte, William H. Macy, Thomas Middleditch and Jeffrey Tambor. In addition, previous three-time Emmy victor Laurie Metcalf (for her supporting role on Roseanne) emerged a multiple-nominee: in the lead comedy category for Getting On, as well as for her comedic guest work in The Big Bang Theory and her dramatic guest work in Horace and Pete.

The FX show Fargo and mini-series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story were the next most nominated.

“Downton Abbey” executive producer Gareth Neame says he opened a bottle of Dom Pérignon in his office with a sword after hearing the series received 10 nominations for its final season. The Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will air on ABC September 18.

And will “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star and creator, Rachel Bloom, be the golden girl to finally earn the CW it’s first Emmy nomination?

Viola Davis, who also made history in 2015 by becoming the first black woman to win the best lead actress prize, has once again been nominated for her role in How To Get Away With Murder.

As usual, HBO led the way in terms of overall nominations, although its total of 94 represented the pay channel’s lowest since 2012 – dropping from a record 126 previous year.

They were among a number of black actors recognized by TV academy voters, who have started to keep pace with TV’s growing diversity – in sharp contrast to moviedom’s Academy Awards, which were slammed as “Oscars So White” this year.

Show creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

But there were no major acting nods for the stars of “Fresh Off the Boat” or other Asian-American actors, or for Latinos, which has been a recurrent Emmy pattern.

The nominations will be announced live on Emmys.com at 11:30 a.m. EDT.