“Mad Men” and “Modern Family” will both hope to make history at the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, with AMC’s period advertising hit looking for a record fifth outstanding drama series prize and ABC’s ensemble smash hoping to score a sixth consecutive win for outstanding comedy.
“Mad Men” is a sentimental favorite heading into the ceremony at the Microsoft Theater, having ended its run in May; but it will face still competition in the category from “Better Call Saul,” “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.”
“Mad Men” won the Emmy in the category each of its first four seasons, but last won in 2011. It is hoping to repeat the success of “Breaking Bad” and “The Sopranos,” both of which won the Emmy in their final seasons. The show is among three to have won four Emmys for outstanding drama series, along with “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing.”
The ceremony will be televised line on Fox starting at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
This is the fourth year in a row that none of the nominees for outstanding drama series come from the major legacy broadcast networks. “The Good Wife” was the most recent nominee from a major broadcast network. A series from the major broadcast networks has not won in the category since Fox’s “24” in 2006.
Jon Hamm is nominated for best actor in a drama series for “Mad Men.” He will square off against Kyle Chandler for “Bloodline,” Jeff Daniels for “The Newsroom,” Bob Odenkirk for “Better Call Saul,” Liev Schrieber for “Ray Donovan” and Kevin Spacey for “House of Cards.”
“Mad Men’s” Elisabeth Moss is nominated for best actress in a drama series, along with Claire Danes for “Homeland,” Viola Davis for “How to Get Away with Murder,” Taraji P. Henson for “Empire,” Tatiana Maslany for “Orphan Black” and Robin Wright for “House of Cards.”
On the comedy side of the awards, “Modern Family” is looking to continue its streak of five outstanding comedy series Emmys. Only “Frasier” has won that many times in the category. “Modern Family” has won the prize every season it has been on the air.
The ABC comedy will compete for the honor this year with “Louie,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Silicon Valley,” “Transparent,” “Veep” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
Anthony Anderson is up for best actor in a comedy for his work in the freshman series “black-ish.” Will Forte is also a new face in the category for “The Last Man on Earth.” They will compete with Don Cheadle from “House of Lies,” William H. Macy from “Shameless,” Matt LeBlanc from “Episodes” and Louis C.K. from “Louie.”
Veteran actress and comedian Lily Tomlin is among the nominees for best actress in a comedy for “Grace and Frankie.” Perennial contender Edie Falco is nominated again for “Nurse Jackie,” along with Lisa Kudrow for “The Comeback,” Amy Schumer for “Inside Amy Schumer,” Amy Poehler for “Parks and Recreation” and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for “Veep.”
CBS’ “The Amazing Race” is again among the nominees for outstanding reality-competition program. It has been nominated each of the preceding 13 years the category has been in existence. It won each of the first seven years, and again in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
It will compete with “Dancing with the Stars,” “Project Runway,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Top Chef” and “The Voice.” The list of nominees in the category has been the same four years in a row. NBC’s “The Voice” and Bravo’s “Top Chef” are the only other shows to win in the category.
For this year’s Emmys, all references to mini-series have been changed to limited series, which is now defined as a program with two or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 minutes, that tells a complete, non- recurring story and does not have an on-going storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons.
Nominees for outstanding limited series are ABC’s “American Crime,” FX’s “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge,” Sundance’s “The Honorable Woman” and PBS’ “Wolf Hall.”
Uzo Aduba, who won a guest actress Emmy last season for her portrayal of Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on “Orange is the New Black,” is nominated this year for best supporting actress in a drama, along with Joanne Froggatt of “Downton Abbey,” Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey of “Game of Thrones,” Christine Baranski of “The Good Wife” and Christina Hendricks of “Mad Men.”
Nominated for supporting actor in a drama are Jonathan Banks of “Better Call Saul,” Jim Carter of “Downton Abbey,” Michael Kelly of “House of Cards,” Ben Mendelsohn of “Bloodline,” Peter Dinklage of “Game of Thrones” and Alan Cumming of “The Good Wife.”
For comedies, supporting-actor nominees are Andre Braugher of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Adam Driver of “Girls,” Keegan-Michael Key of “Key & Peele,” Ty Burrell of “Modern Family,” Tituss Burgess of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and Tony Hale for “Veep.”
Hoping to take home the supporting actress prize are Mayim Bialik of “The Big Bang Theory,” Niecy Nash of “Getting On,” Julie Bowen of “Modern Family,” Allison Janney for “Mom,” Kate McKinnon of “Saturday Night Live,” Gaby Hoffmann for “Transparent,” Jane Krakowski of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and Anna Chlumsky for “Veep.”
The 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which honor programming initially airing between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. from June 1, 2014, to May 31, 2015, will be hosted by “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star Andy Samberg.
— City News Service