2009 Emmy Nominations

Emmy nominations were announced on Thursday with the NBC comedy "30 Rock" and ABC 1960s period drama "Mad Men" leading the Primetime nominations, Reuters reports.

Tina Fey's "30 Rock" had a lading 22 nominations, including best TV comedy and best actress for Fey, who won the award in 2007. "Mad Men" had 16 nominations, including best drama. Both shows won their respective best in category awards last year.

Among the television networks, cable channel HBO had the most primetime Emmy nominations with 99 followed by broadcast network NBC with 67. Other cable channels pulled in fewer nominations with Showtime bringing in 29 and AMC 23. Broadcast station ABC had 55 nominations, CBS 49 and Fox 42.

According to USA Today, many first time nominees are mixed in with Emmy award veterans. In the best comedy category, first time nominees Fox's "Family Guy" and CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" will go up against HBO comedies "Flight of the Conchords" and Entourage, Showtime's "Weeds," and NBC's "The Office" and "30 Rock."

I the best drama category, only two broadcast series, ABC's "Lost" and Fox's "House" will compete against "Mad Men," AMC's "Breaking Bad," HBO's "Big Love," FX's "Damages" and Showtime's "Dexter."

First time individual nominees include Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss, Simon Baker of CBS' "The Mentalist," Jim Parsons from CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," Sarah Silverman of Comedy Central's "Sarah Silverman Program" and Jemaine Clement from "Flight of the Conchords."

All of last year's winning acting nominees were nominated again this year in a categories that have expanded the number of nominees from five to six. The number of top comedy and drama contenders rose to seven.

The 61st annual Emmy awards will air Sept. 20 on CBS.