Glee grabs 19 nods, True Blood shakes up the drama category, Lost’s Matthew Fox finally get his due, and Conan trumps Jay. View our gallery of the nominees for TV’s big night. Plus, see which shows and performances were snubbed.
During a quick-and-dirty press conference at the crack of dawn in Hollywood, Community’s Joel McHale and Modern Family’s sizzling Sofia Vergara announced the nominees for this year’s Emmy Awards—and, blessedly, there were more reasons to tune in than the duo’s good looks.
Click Image to View Our Gallery of the 2010 Emmy Nominees
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is traditionally a tame group, quick to hand over coveted nominations to the undeserving (Charlie Sheen), the overplayed (Tony Shalhoub), and series long past their expiration dates ( Entourage). This year, however, saw rejected old standbys and saw a smattering of new names—fan favorite Glee, Modern Family, and even the long-snubbed leads from Friday Night Lights snuck onto the ballot.
Unsurprisingly, Lost was nominated for the first time since 2005 for its final mind-bending season. (Matthew Fox received his first nod as the island’s good doctor Jack, but, sadly, Vincent was overlooked for stealing his thunder in that final scene.) In the drama category, Lost is competing with The Good Wife, Dexter, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and dark horse True Blood. And as if the anticipation for its July 27 return to AMC couldn’t get more ridiculous, Mad Men received 19 nominations, including one for the well-deserving Christina Hendricks. Julianna Margulies’ slowly simmering portrayal of a public woman scorned on The Good Wife was good enough for a Best Actress in a Drama nomination, where she’ll duke it out with Kyra Sedgwick, Glenn Close, Mariska Hargitay, January Jones, and Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights.
And while the late-night battle that saw Jay Leno wrestle back The Tonight Show from the bitter, slender hands of Conan O’Brien is long over, their ugly war is still playing out in real time. NBC submitted Leno’s incarnation of the show for consideration, and Conan submitted his—but only Coco’s Tonight Show was nominated. Does vindication taste sweeter in the morning?
There were plenty of other stars with reasons to smile today. (“My agent woke me up with the news! I didn’t even know the nominations were today!”) Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison were nominated for their turns in Glee, and Modern Family’s supporting cast made a huge showing, with nominations for nearly every cast member, except poor sitcom veteran Ed O’Neill, whose curmudgeonly father figure was left out in the cold.
Now that you’re appropriately caught up with the TV season, let the guessing games begin. The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards air Sunday, August 29 on NBC—and the only safe bet is that host Jimmy Fallon will be 100 percent awkward. Is it too much to hope for Conan to crash the spotlight?