Special Report

2012 Emmy Awards

See the nominees, take the polls and get predictions for the 64th Primetime Emmys.

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2012 Emmy nominees

Emmys: Noms who have never won

2012 Emmy nominees announced

The 2012 Emmy nominees were announced Thursday. “Mad Men” and “American Horror Story” lead the pack with 17 Emmy Award nominations each.

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Outstanding host for a reality or reality-competition program: Betty White

For the first time since the reality-competition host award was added to the Primetime Emmys, Jeff Probst will positively not win — because he was not nominated this year. Taking his place? Betty White, host of NBC's "Betty White's Off Their Rockers." Additionally, Probst's reality show "Survivor" is not in the running this year for outstanding reality-competition series, but NBC's singing competition, "The Voice," is. (Nor was the country's most popular reality show, "American Idol,” nominated.)

Toby Canham / Getty Images

Outstanding drama series and outstanding lead actress in a drama series: “Homeland” and Claire Danes

Showtime’s espionage drama “Homeland,” starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, snagged an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series in its first year of eligibility. It has already won best-drama trophies at the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, and it even won a Peabody Award for distinguished achievement and meritorious public service, leading some to say it’s the nominee most likely to loosen the stranglehold four-time winner “Mad Men” has on Emmy’s hottest trophy. Meanwhile, Danes, who likewise has already won a Globe and a Critics’ Choice TV Award for the show, snagged an acting nomination Thursday morning.

Kent Smith / Showtime

Outstanding drama series and outstanding lead actor in a drama series: “Breaking Bad” and Bryan Cranston

AMC’s teacher-turned-meth-dealer drama tried twice, unsuccessfully, to beat AMC’s “Mad Men” in the drama derby in years past, and will try again this year. Meanwhile, star Bryan Cranston, who’s won the dramatic acting award every year he’s been nominated, is back after sitting out last year.

Ursula Coyote / AMC

Outstanding drama series, outstanding lead actor in a drama series, outstanding lead actress in a drama series:“Mad Men,” Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss

Snagging another Emmy nomination Thursday, AMC’s ’60s-set Madison Avenue soap is poised to make Emmy history in September if it wins the race for outstanding drama series, which would make it five in a row. Meanwhile, its star Jon Hamm, left, nominated again for acting, has never won the Emmy — and this year looks to face his stiffest competition yet.

Ron Jaffe / AMC

Outstanding drama series and outstanding lead actor in a drama series: “Homeland” and Damian Lewis

Showtime’s espionage drama “Homeland,” starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, snagged an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series in its first year of eligibility. It has already won best-drama trophies at the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, and it even won a Peabody Award for distinguished achievement and meritorious public service, leading some to say it’s the nominee most likely to loosen the stranglehold four-time winner “Mad Men” has on Emmy’s hottest trophy. Lewis, meanwhile, snagged his first Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.

Kent Smith / Showtime

Outstanding drama series:”Game of Thrones”

HBO’s swords-and-sex fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” received a lot of Emmy nominations last year – 13 — but not a lot of Emmy wins, with the notable exception of Peter Dinklage’s award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series (as well as outstanding main title design). This year it’s a repeat nominee in the drama derby, further signaling that the show is maybe wearing down TV academy voters’ resistance to genre dramas.

Helen Sloan / HBO

Outstanding drama series: “Downton Abbey”

After winning the Emmy last year for outstanding miniseries, PBS’s sumptuous British crunchy-gravel drama moved itself to the drama series competition this year, which so far has paid off: It pulled off the nomination and is considered by many to be the best bet for bumping off AMC’s “Mad Men,” which has won the outstanding-drama trophy four years running — tying it with “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing” for the most in Emmy history.

Nick Briggs / ITV for Masterpiece Classic

Outstanding comedy series and outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: “Girls” and Lena Dunham.

Lena Dunham, center, is one of a couple of fresh-faced young women vying for honors at this year’s Emmys. Dunham’s darkly comedic HBO series, “Girls” — she created the program, as well as many headlines — is among the female-centric shows nominated for outstanding comedy series. In an industry that is all about reaching young guys, that constitutes big news.

Jojo Whilden / HBO

Outstanding comedy series: "Modern Family"

Presumably, all those comedies with “Girl” in the title that got nominated for outstanding comedy series had their big Emmy moment Thursday morning, since two-time winner “Modern Family” nailed another nomination and is considered the odds-on fave to win again this year.

Richard Foreman / ABC

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series: Jon Cryer, “Two and a Half Men”

After being nominated six times (and winning once) in the Emmy race for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series, the TV academy this year bestowed upon the “Two and a Half Men” star a nom for best lead actor — the least they could do to acknowledge his having survived the Charlie Sheen years.

Danny Feld / Warner Bros. Television

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie”

After announcing that she isn’t funny, and that she had laughed when she found out she was nominated as a comedy series star, while picking up her Emmy for her “Nurse Jackie” performance in 2010, TV academy members took Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” star at her at her word and instead gave last year’s Emmy to Melissa McCarthy for her performance in “Mike & Molly.” This year Falco will hope they’ve forgotten her comment because she’s again nominated in the category.

Ken Regan / Showtime

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: Melissa McCarthy, “Mike & Molly”

As last year’s winner in this category, Melissa McCarthy hopes to make it two in a row after being nominated again Thursday.

Richard Cartwright / CBS

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: Zooey Deschanel, “New Girl”

Fox’s new comedy star Zooey Deschanel snagged her first Emmy Award nomination Thursday.

Isabella Vosmikova / Fox

Outstanding comedy series and outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: “Veep,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is among those nominated Thursday for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series, for her starring role as vice president of the United States on HBO’s new “Veep.” Louis-Dreyfus has a long record of comedy Emmy noms – in the “supporting actress” race during her days on NBC’s “Seinfeld” and in the “lead actress” derby during her years on CBS’s “The News Adventures of Old Christine.” But she won only once in each case.

Bill Gray / HBO

Outstanding miniseries or movie: “American Horror Story”

With all the star wattage in this year’s outstanding-drama race, the decision makers behind FX’s “American Horror Story” decided that, for Emmy purposes, it was a miniseries — even though it had competed in drama-series races (without winning) at the Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards just a few months earlier. So far, the new strategy is going well: It not only bagged the nomination Thursday; it also tied heavyweight “Mad Men” for the most nominations of the year, at 17.

Robert Zuckerman / FX

Outstanding variety series: “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”

The past nine years, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart-anchored faux newscast, “The Daily Show,” has won the Emmy for outstanding variety series; it took one step towards its 10th on Thursday when it was again nominated in the category, against “The Colbert Report,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “Saturday Night Live.”

Brad Barket / AP

Outstanding variety series: “Jimmy Kimmel Live”

Jimmy Kimmel snagged his first Emmy nomination as host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in the prestigious race for outstanding variety series.

Chris Pizzello / AP

Best Variety Series: “Real Time with Bill Maher”

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” picked up two Emmy nominations Thursday, to the delight of Emmy wonks, who worried he would not receive any this time around. Maher is a kind of mascot for the Primetime Emmy Awards, being Emmy’s biggest loser. He’s been nominated for 27 Emmys since 1995 — as a performer, producer and writer — but never won. Over the years, and nearly every year since ‘95, Maher has lost to some of the best, among them “The Daily Show,” in the outstanding variety program competition, and even “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” — the one and only time Leno won that race. Maher’s writing team has lost to the writers of “The Colbert Report,” and his specials have, in various categories, been beaten by “The Kennedy Center Honors,” one of the Neil Patrick Harris-hosted Tony Awards, the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and even “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.”

Janet Van Ham / AP

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

TV presenter and conservationist Anneka Tanaka-Svenska wears a hat designed by Louis Mariette during the first day of Royal Ascot, in Berkshire, west of London, on June 18, 2013. The five-day meeting is one of the highlights of the horse racing calendar. Horse racing has been held at the famous Berkshire course since 1711 and tradition is a hallmark of the meeting. Top hats and tails remain compulsory in parts of the course while a daily procession of horse-drawn carriages brings the Queen to the course. AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNISADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images

Photos of the day

Royal Ascot, protests in Brazil, Lego exhibition, flooding in India, Cheetah-Cub robot and more.

epa03749440 US actor Brad Pitt arrives on the red carpet for the New York Premiere of 'World War Z' in Times Square in New York, USA, 17 June 2013. EPA/JASON SZENES

The premiere of ‘World War Z’

The zombie flick starring Brad Pitt opens from Berlin to New York.

Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Animal views

Rodent exhibition, swimming with elephants, Mexico’s feline mayoral candidate and more.

Inmates walk at a high-security male prison camp outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk May 14, 2013. High-security male prison camp number 17 is intended to house male inmates who are serving a sentence for the first time, and have been convicted for serious crimes. Prisoners at the facility work in wood and metal processing shops, manufacture furniture, sew clothes and do other kinds of work. They can also take part in educational, sport and cultural programs. Picture taken May 14, 2013. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin (RUSSIA - Tags: CRIME LAW SOCIETY) ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 4 OF 29 FOR PACKAGE 'INSIDE SIBERIA'S PRISONS' SEARCH 'ILYA PRISON' FOR ALL IMAGES

Life in a Siberian prison

A look inside a high-security prison camp outside Krasnoyarsk, Russia

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Johnathon’s journey

Johnathon Carrington graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and is headed to Georgetown University. But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are...

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 18: Madonna attends the Dolce & Gabbana and The Cinema Society screening of the Epix World premiere of 'Madonna: The MDNA Tour' at The Paris Theatre on June 18, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

Eye on entertainment

Madonna, Michael Buble, Barbara Streisand, Jackie Chan, Jerry Seinfeld, Estelle and other celebrities.

In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Brazil’s other soccer fields

With the Confederations Cup opening this week and the World Cup one year away, all eyes are on Brazil, where soccer is arguably played with more passion and art than anywhere else....

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Father’s Day picnic in Northeast D.C.

A decades-old backyard barbecue in Northeast Washington draws hundreds in honor of dads everywhere. “It’s off-the-chain fun,” says Butch McNair, who has worked one...

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