It's good to be the king. The 2012 Emmy Award nominations were announced Thursday morning and four-time Drama Series winner Mad Men and two-time Comedy Series winner Modern Family remained the top nominees.

But that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty of fresh blood. American Horror Story dominated the Miniseries and TV Movie categories with 17 nominations while Downton Abbey made a huge splash in the Drama categories with 16 nominations (including six for acting).

On the Drama side, for the first time in history, all of the nominees for Outstanding Drama Series are cable shows (The Good Wife got shut out). However, equally notable are the actors missing. Hugh Laurie was left out for the final season of House and four-time nominee John Slattery for Mad Men was snubbed (though co-star Jared Harris got in).

On the Comedy side, HBO's Girls and Veep made big splashes with major nominations for Series and Lead Actress. Somehow Parks and Recreation was left off the list for Outstanding Comedy Series, but luckily New Girl stars Zooey Deschanel and Max Greenfield scored nominations. In the "WTF?" category, Jon Cryer was nominated as a Lead Actor for Two and a Half Men while people like Bill Hader for Saturday Night Live and Merrit Wever for Nurse Jackie scored nominations. There also no love for Glee, which only picked up a measly three nominations for season 3 (for Make-Up, Cinematography and guest star Dot-Marie Jones).

The big story for reality is who was NOT nominated. American Idol was snubbed for the first time as a Reality Competition while Survivor's Jeff Probst, who has won the Emmy for Reality Host all four years it has existed, is left out in favor of Betty White.

As for the minor categories, I'm insanely happy to report that Community's "Remedial Chaos Theory" (aka the episode that created six alternate time lines) was nominated for Writing while Breaking Bad's mostly silent villain Tio Salamanca (Mark Margolis) scored a Guest Actor nomination where he'll compete against Mad Men's oddball Ben Feldman (Ginsberg) and Parenthood's Jason Ritter. Also, Raising Hope's brilliant song from the start of season 2 ("Welcome Back to Hope") was nominated for Original Music and Lyrics.

Here are the major nominees. Click HERE for a complete list.

DRAMA SERIES
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Mad Men

DRAMA LEAD ACTOR
Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Damian Lewis, Homeland

DRAMA LEAD ACTRESS
Kathy Bates, Harry's Law
Glenn Close, Damages
Claire Danes, Homeland
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Jared Harris, Mad Men
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
Giancarlo Esposito, Breaking Bad
Brendan Coyle, Downton Abbey
Jim Carter, Downton Abbey

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Joanna Froggatt, Downton Abbey
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife

COMEDY SERIES
The Big Bang Theory
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Girls
Modern Family
30 Rock
Veep

COMEDY LEAD ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Louis C.K., Louie
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

COMEDY LEAD ACTRESS
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Lena Dunham, Girls
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Melissa McCarthy, Mike and Molly
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ed O'Neill, Modern Family
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Max Greenfield, New Girl
Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory
Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Merrit Wever, Nurse Jackie
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

REALITY COMPETITION
The Amazing Race
Dancing with the Stars
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance
Top Chef
The Voice

REALITY HOST
Tom Bergeron, Dancing with the Stars
Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance
Phil Keoghan, The Amazing Race
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol
Betty White, Betty White's Off Their Rockers


The 64th Annual Emmy Awards will air Sunday, September 23 on ABC hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.


(Image courtesy of AMC)