'Saturday Night Live,' 'Westworld' Lead Emmy Noms With 22 Each

NORTH HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA.com/AP) – "Saturday Night Live," powered by madcap skits skewering the Trump administration, earned 22 Emmy Award nominations, including bids for Alec Baldwin's florid portrayal of the president and Melissa McCarthy's manic, gender-busting take on press secretary Sean Spicer.

The long-running NBC variety show tied with HBO's sci-fi drama "Westworld," which also earned 22 bids on Thursday, to jointly top the field for the 69th Primetime Emmys to be presented in September.

Breakout drama "This is Us" received 11 nods, including the first best-drama series for a broadcast network show since "The Good Wife" in 2011. NBC's intricately told story of an extended family, a hit with viewers and critics, also earned bids for Sterling K. Brown and Milo Ventimiglia, who are competing with each other in the best actor category.

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"Veep," the most-nominated comedy, has a chance for its third consecutive best comedy series and gives star Julia Louis-Dreyfus the chance to build on her record of most wins for a lead comedy actress. She has five for "Veep" and one for "New Adventures of Old Christine."

Emmy voters showed their willingness to recognize new comic voices as well as diversity. Donald Glover's freshman "Atlanta" earned a best comedy bid, as did "Master of None," starring Aziz Ansari, and "black-ish."

But there was room for an old favorite, "Modern Family," although it earned only a handful of bids besides best comedy, including for Ty Burrell in the supporting actor category.

HBO's "Game of Thrones," which dominated last year's Emmys with 23 nods and 12 trophies, including its second consecutive best drama award, fell outside the eligibility window for Emmy consideration this year. "Orphan Black" isn't in the running for the same reason, depriving star Tatiana Maslany of the chance to repeat as best-drama actress.

The biggest rule changes are the creation of two new categories: outstanding music supervision, to acknowledge the creative contributions made by the supervisor to the music of any television program; and outstanding casting in a reality series to recognize casting directors responsible for identifying and assembling ensemble casts for structured, unstructured or competition programs within the alternative genre.

"In our ever-changing world of television, it's important to annually evaluate and refine the rules of Emmy competition," said Television Academy Chairman and CEO Hayma Washington. "We are keeping pace with industry innovators, and recognizing excellence within new and changing genres and platforms."

The academy also split the former cinematography for a single-camera series category into cinematography for hour and half-hour series, and added two award categories in interactive media, a new category award for interactive programs and a new juried award for outstanding innovation in interactive programming.

Anna Chlumsky from "Veep" and Shemar Moore, who will star in the new CBS series "S.W.A.T.", joined Washington in announcing the nominees in the top categories at the Television Academy's North Hollywood headquarters.

The 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which honor programming initially airing between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. from June 1, 2016, to May 31, 2017, will be presented Sept. 17 at the Microsoft Theater with late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert as the host. The ceremony will be televised by CBS.

The bulk of the Primetime Emmys will be presented at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Sept. 9-10, also at the Microsoft Theater.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)