The suburban mobsters from The Sopranos took a whack at the rest of the television world Thursday morning, racking up a leading 22 Emmy nominations, including nods for best drama, best lead dramatic actor and two for best lead dramatic actress.
Politics followed crime, as NBC's The West Wing pulled in 18 nominations, including best drama, which it won — along with nine other Emmys — last year.
NBC's ER, Law and Order and ABC's The Practice were also nominated for best drama.
In comedy, NBC stalwart Friends was notably absent from the final five nominees, which included CBS' Everybody Loves Raymond, NBC's Frasier and Will & Grace, HBO's Sex and the City, and Fox's Malcolm in the Middle.
Other notable Emmy nominees include the miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows — which earned 13 bids — and the NBC comedy Will & Grace and the baseball saga 61.., which each received 12 nominations.
Lead actor nominee James Gandolfini, from The Sopranos will compete with Andre Braugher of ABC's canceled Gideon's Crossing, Dennis Franz of ABC's NYPD Blue and Rob Lowe and Martin Sheen of The West Wing.
In addition to Edie Falco from The Sopranos, others nominated for best actress in a drama series included her co-star Lorraine Bracco, Amy Brenneman of CBS' Judging Amy, Sela Ward of ABC's Once and Again, and Marg Helgenberger of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Nominations for best actor in a comedy series went to perennial favorite Kelsey Grammer of Frasier, John Lithgow of 3rd Rock from the Sun and Eric McCormack of Will & Grace, all on NBC, and Frankie Muniz of Malcolm in the Middle and Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond.
Female comedy series counterparts who received bids were Calista Flockhart of Fox's Ally McBeal and Jane Kaczmarek of Malcolm in the Middle, Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond, Debra Messing of Will & Grace and Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City.
Bids for best supporting actor in a drama series went to Michael Imperioli and Dominic Chianese of The Sopranos and Bradley Whitford, John Spencer and Richard Schiff all of The West Wing.
Nominees for supporting actress in a drama series were Stockard Channing and Allison Janney of The West Wing, Aida Turturro of The Sopranos, Maura Tierney of ER and Tyne Daly of Judging Amy.
Robert Downey Jr., whose guest role on Ally McBeal was cut short by a drug-related arrest and who won a Golden Globe for his performance, was nominated for best comedy supporting actor. He'll compete against co-star Peter MacNicol as well as Peter Boyle of Everybody Loves Raymond, David Hyde Pierce of Frasier and Sean Hayes of Will & Grace.
Supporting comedy actress nominations went to Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow, Doris Roberts of Everybody Loves Raymond, Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City and Megan Mullally of Will & Grace.
Awards in the two new reality show categories will be given out during a ceremony held in the weeks before the televised ceremony. In these particular categories, awards can go to one, more than one, or none of the nominees, depending on the decisions of judging panels.
Among reality programs in which a prize was not the object of the show, the nominees were Fox's American High, Bravo's The Awful Truth With Michael Moore, The E! True Hollywood Story on E! Entertainment Television, HBO's Taxicab Confessions and TLC's Trauma: Life in the ER.
Nominees in reality shows in which contestants are after a prize were VH1's Bands on the Run, USA's Eco-Challenge: Borneo, TLC's Junkyard Wars, MTV's Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour in addition to Survivor.
Along with Life With Judy Garland, best miniseries nods went to the controversial Anne Frank on ABC, Showtime's Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City, A&E's Horatio Hornblower and TNT's Nuremberg.
In the made-for-TV movie category, 61.. will compete with HBO's Conspiracy and For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story, Showtime's Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor and HBO's Wit.
Among networks, The Sopranos helped drive HBO to a leading 94 nominations, followed by NBC with 76, ABC with 63 and CBS with 46.
Ellen DeGeneres will be the master of ceremonies of the 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 16 in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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