They say it's an honor just to be nominated — but it feels so much better to actually win!
On July 19, Scandal's Kerry Washington, 35, and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, 44, announced this year's Primetime Emmy Awards nominees. FX's American Horror Story and AMC's Mad Men earned the most nods with 17 each.
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon was nominated in the Outstanding Variety Series category, where it will go up against The Colbert Report, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Real Time With Bill Maher and Saturday Night Live. "So happy to get nominated!" host Jimmy Fallon, 37, tells Us Weekly in a statement. "Can't wait to get back to the Late Night office and celebrate! But first I gotta leave this theatre and change out of this Batman costume."
Fallon's pal Maya Rudolph, 39, also scored a nod in the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series category for her February 18, 2012 hosting gig on Saturday Night Live. (She was a featured cast member from 2000 to 2007.)
"I had so much fun hosting — it was like coming home. Getting to go back and play with your friends . . . there's nothing better," the Up All Night star tells Us. "Hosting SNL was my childhood dream, while other kids were playing princess I was doing impressions of Roseanne Roseannadanna. This is an amazing honor and one I share with Lorne [Michaels], and all the incredible cast and writers of SNL."
The NBC series also yielded a nomination for Bill Hader, 34, who has been with the comedy troupe since 2005. "It's a great honor, though there should be parentheses next to my name with all of the SNL writers," the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nominee says. "And now I have to kiss up to the cast members of Modern Family in hopes that they pull a Ving Rhames and give me their award when they win." Hader is up against Modern Family's Ed O'Neill, 66, Eric Stonestreet, 40, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, 36, and Ty Burrell, 44, in addition to New Girl's Max Greenfield, 31.
"I feel very fortunate to be a part of a show like New Girl!" Greenfield tweeted. "I love television and all of you."
30 Rock's Alec Baldwin, 54, is nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the sixth year in a row; he won in 2008 and 2009. "As the show enters its last season, I'm gratified to be nominated again by the Academy," the newlywed tells Us in a statement.
Margaret Cho also scored an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nod for her spoof of deceased North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il on the NBC comedy. "I'm so excited to have been nominated for an Emmy, especially for 30 Rock, which is an incredible show and also for playing a deranged and deceased world dictator who has divided the small country of my origin in two. That's the best part," she says. "I think that's what I'd call iron curtain irony."
To see a full list of Primetime Emmy Award nominees, click here.
