2014 Emmy Nominations, HBO Leads the List

Jul 11, 2014 05:12 AM EDT

The nominations for the 66^th annual Emmy Awards have been announced this Thursday in Los Angeles with HBO leading the pack.

With voting centered on cable shows and new contenders, nominations have drawn attention to returning series and a couple of breakthroughs.

HBO's True Detective and original Netflix series House of Cards will face PBS's Downton Abbey, AMC's Breaking Bad and Mad Men, and Game of Thrones, also by HBO.

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Comedy contender Orange is the New Black by Netflix will compete against HBO's Veep, CBS's The Big Bang Theory, FX's Louie, tech-world spoof Silicon Valley, and ABC's Modern Family, which has won four times already in the Best Comedy Series category.

Acting categories have also been occupied by first-time contenders such as Masters of Sex' Lizzy Caplan for best drama actress.

Detective's Matthew McConaughey has also been nominated for the Lead Actor in a Drama series category.

Game of Thrones led all the programs, garnering 19 nods followed by Fargo with 18 nominations and American Horror Story: Coven with 17 nominations, both by FX.

Overall, HBO ruled the list of nominees with 99, followed by CBS with 47 and NBC with 46.

Despite being only in its second year, Netflix nabbed 31 with its original House of Cards earning 13, including nominations for Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.

Some popular contenders were not included in the series category this year, such as Showtime's Homeland and HBO's Girls, although their stars Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Lena Dunham, and Adam Driver have all been included as nominees for their respective acting categories.

For reality competition series, The Amazing Race, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and last year's winner The Voice are competing.

The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Real Time with Bill Maher have all been nominated for the variety show category.

Seth Meyers will be hosting the 66^th annual Emmy Awards which will take place Aug. 25 on NBC.