Screen Actors Guild Award nominees are announced

The biggest surprise at Wednesday’s unveiling of the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees?

No question: “American Horror Story’s” Jessica Lange nomination for best performance by a female actor in a drama series.

It’s no surprise that Lange got nominated for her turn as “AHS’s” sadistic Sister Judge; scenery chewing on that scale is highly prized in Hollywood.

What’s surprising is that she’s nominated in a drama-series category: The show’s creators and the FX network have been drilling it into our heads that “American Horror Story” isn’t a drama series — it’s a miniseries.

At least, it is since the producers and network decided so, around Emmy nominations time in the summer. Before that, the show competed as a drama series at the previous SAG Awards, and at January’s Golden Globe Awards. (Golden Globe nominees will be announced Thursday morning — keep an eye out for whether Lange gets a nom as a drama-series or miniseries actress).

Switching categories in the middle of trophy show season resulted in Lange winning an Emmy for best supporting actress in a miniseries — “AHS’s” only glam-category Emmy win in September. Ever since, the producers and FX have continued to refer to “AHS” as a miniseries. Apparently, they did not impress SAG.

“They tried to make a switch [to miniseries competitions] and we said, ‘We consider it a drama series,’ ” SAG Awards producer Kathy Connell told the TV Column when asked about Lange’s category.

“They submitted in drama series [competition] last year,” Connell said. “We weren’t going to turn around and move them to miniseries.” She noted that Lange won the SAG Award in January for best performance by a female actor in a drama series. SAG said it’s delighted that Lange is nominated there again.

That excitement aside, Showtime’s “Homeland,” ignored by SAG last year, got nods for leads Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, plus a nom for best drama series ensemble. Those three noms put “Homeland” in company with PBS’s “Downton Abbey,” HBO’s “Game Change” and “Boardwalk Empire,” AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” and NBC’s “30 Rock.”

The ABC comedy “Modern Family” led the TV field with four nominations, including for actors Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara, as well as an ensemble comedy nomination.

HBO scored the most nominations of any network with 10, including acting nods to Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson for the John McCain-and-Sarah Palin chronicle of the 2008 presidential election, “Game Change,” which only seems as though it aired three year ago, but actually aired in 2012 — which is the period of eligibility for the upcoming SAG Awards.

Also in HBO’s tally: Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen were each nominated for the network’s “Hemingway & Gellhorn” movie, which received less-than-favorable reviews from many critics. Steve Buscemi scored another nom for his role as a mobster on “Boardwalk Empire,” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” sneaked in just one nod, for star Jeff Daniels.

“Downton Abbey’s” Maggie Smith received the most SAG nominations, with four. SAG singled her out for her performances in both “Downton” and the feature film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”; she’s also listed in “Downton” and “Marigold’s” ensemble-cast nominations.