But few of TV's most popular series won major awards recognition, continuing a trend that lately has favored lower-rated but critically acclaimed shows. And that, in turn, has hurt ratings for the Emmy ceremony, which last year tied a record low audience. This year's awards air Sept. 20 on CBS.

Among top drama contenders, AMC's Breaking Bad, HBO's Big Love, FX's Damages and Showtime's Dexter will join Mad Men and compete against just two broadcast series, ABC's Lostand Fox's House.

For best comedy, HBO's Flight of the Conchordsand Entourage, along with Showtime's Weeds, will battle NBC's The Office and Rock, along with first-time nominees Fox's Family Guyand CBS' How I Met Your Mother. (Family Guy is TV's first animated series up for best comedy since The Flintstones in 1961).

Other first-time acting nominees include Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss, Simon Baker of CBS' hit The Mentalist, Jim Parsons of CBS' Big Bang Theory and Conchords' Jemaine Clement.

Some new series were snubbed by Emmy voters, including HBO's acclaimed True Blood and No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which were shut out of top categories. FX's Rescue Me came up short, save for guest star Michael J. Fox, and departing shows ER, The Shieldand Battlestar Galacticadidn't measure up.

Movie contenders were split between two cable networks: Lifetime's Coco Chanel and Prayers for Bobby and HBO's Grey Gardens, Into the Storm and Taking Chance. And only two miniseries, HBO's Generation Kill and PBS' Little Dorrit, vie in that category.

The list of reality competitions is identical to last year's, led by six-time winner The Amazing Race. And shows led by Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Bill Maher vie for best variety, music or comedy series with NBC's Saturday Night Live.

Justin Timberlake was among guest-acting nominees for his role as "various characters" on SNL. And Fey and Hamm won second nominations as guest stars, Fey for her SNL appearances as Gov. Sarah Palin and Hamm for his turn as Fey's date on 30 Rock.

The Emmy voting system had two changes: Acting nominees expanded to six in each category from five (drama and comedy series categories grew to seven because of ties), and the TV academy ditched "blue-ribbon" nominating panels, allowing all members to vote in each category. Despite predictions that the change would favor more popular series at the expense of lower-rated cable series, such niche series prevailed in several categories.

HBO again had the most nominations with 99, followed by NBC (67), ABC (55), CBS (49) and Fox (42).

Other records:

• SNL had 13 nominations, the most by a variety program in a single year.

• Dancing With the Stars set a record for most by a "non-fiction program" with 10.