Emmys 2012: Nominations Are In!

Greetings, TV lovers!  This morning, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 2012 Emmy Awards. Host Jimmy Kimmel (yay! he's hosting!), accompanied by Kerry Washington, read off the nominees and made some people very happy, while I'm sure others felt quite burned by the Academy.  Read onward for all the hits and misses of this year's nominations! 

Let's put the happy-happy-joy-joy news first!!  Near and dear to our nerdy hearts, The Big Bang Theory was nominated for best comedy series, Jim Parsons for lead actor, and Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) for her outstanding work as supporting actress. While we all know Sheldon's shenanigans, Amy's hilarious tiara-leaping, maid of honor craziness, and BFF love for Penny has really added a new, fantastic dimension to the show. Cheers, Mayim! We at OTF are rooting for ya! 

Congrats, Mayim!

Women in general dominated the comedy categories again this year, with seven funny ladies - including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Zooey Deschanel, and Melissa McCarthy - nominated for lead actress in a comedy.  The comedy actor categories were largely a snooze, and I personally feel that nominating four dudes from Modern Family in the supporting actor category is serious overkill, especially when Simon Helberg's Wolowitz had a standout season and really grew as a person this year. I will instead be rooting for Max Greenberg, aka New Girl's Schmidt - we love the Schmidt around these parts! But shame on the Academy for ignoring Helberg. 

Cable networks dominated the drama and miniseries categories, with American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, and Mad Men (as well as History's Hatfields & McCoys and HBO's Hemingway and Gellhorn) taking many of the honors. In fact, with the exception of CBS's The Good Wife and NBC's Harry's Law, network TV was completely snubbed. Peter Dinklage was once again nominated for his continually stellar work on Game of Thrones, but I was sad to see that the show's other actors (little Arya Stark, Jon Snow, and matriarch Catlin Stark) were left out of the running.  Lost alum and current Justified guest star Jeremy Davies was nominated, but Timothy Olyphant was completely snubbed.  I think perennial nominees Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire) and Michael C. Hall (Dexter) could have taken a backseat to recognize new talent. 

One series I was pleased to see sweep the miniseries nominations was BBC's Sherlock! Mad love to best actor nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and best supporting actor Martin Freeman. In fact, this season's "A Scandal in Belgravia" pulled down nominations in many writing and direction categories as well. Cheers! Another one to root for. 

Cumberbatch & Freeman in action on Sherlock

I know I'm looking forward to TV's biggest night - aren't you?  Head on over to the Emmy homepage for a full list of nominees, and tune in to root for your favorites on September 23 on ABC!! 

EDITED TO ADD: After hitting up the interwebz all day, I would be remiss if I didn't point out other shows that got hugely snubbed: in addition to my beloved Fringe, both The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy were shown no love at all. This is cause for yet more annoyance on behalf of genre fans, and also fans of really great acting. Shameful!