WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- The elaborate fantasy saga Game of Thrones received a leading 24 Emmy Awards nominations Thursday, its stature apparently untouched by backlash over a female character's rape scene.
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The series is a contender for a fifth time for top drama honors, an award that has eluded it since it debuted in 2011. TV academy voters rarely give shows in the sci-fi or other genres the ultimate accolade, with Lost among the rare exceptions.
The TV academy took a step toward recognizing TV's increasing embrace of diverse TV talent, giving best-actress nods to black stars Taraji P. Henson for Empire and Viola Davis for How to Get Away with Murder.
"This is what it's supposed to be like. You should recognize actors and creative people in this industry from every level of all colors who do great work," said Queen Latifah, who was nominated for best actress in a limited series or movie for her work in HBO's Bessie.
The nominations set up the possibility of a history-making win: A black actress has never won the top drama acting award. However, two-time nominee Kerry Washington of Scandal was left out this year.
Family comedy black-ish earned an acting bid for star Anthony Anderson, but failed to gain a best-series nomination.
Also snubbed: freshman hit hip-hop-family drama Empire, which was left out of the category for best drama series, and series star Terrence Howard, who failed to get a bid for best drama actor.
Instead, voters gave nods to favorites such as Mad Men star Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey of House of Cards and newcomer Bob Odenkirk for Better Call Saul. The prequel to the now-concluded Breaking Bad earned a best-drama bid in its first season out.
Gina Rodriguez, the standout Hispanic star of Jane the Virgin, failed to get a comedy acting nod despite winning a Golden Globe award for her performance. Sofia Vergara, a four-time nominee for Modern Family, was snubbed for the second year in a row.
The relatively expansive ethnic diversity that TV offers -- compared with movies, which honored only white actors this year -- also is in play when it comes to sexuality. Transparent and Jeffrey Tambor's portrayal of a transsexual's life received bids for best comedy series and acting.
Other top awards are American Horror Story: Freak Show, with 19 nominations; TV movies Olive Kittridge and Bessie, with 13 and 12 bids, respectively; and House of Cards, Mad Men and Transparent with 11 nominations.
No commercial broadcast network drama made the cut for best series, with cable, streaming service Netflix and noncommercial PBS dividing up the spoils instead.
The Good Wife was the last broadcast nominee in the category, in 2011.
Programs getting a last chance for Emmy glory include best drama series nominee Mad Men, a four-time winner in the category that would be the most-honored drama ever with a fifth trophy. For star Hamm's portrayal of Don Draper, it's a final shot after seven previous nominations.
David Letterman, who retired from Late Show, and Stephen Colbert, who left The Colbert Report to succeed Letterman this fall, both received variety talk show nominations for their former shows.
Late Show was last nominated in 2009 as best variety, music or comedy series and last won in 2002. Colbert's show won in 2014.
They're both getting a break: the TV academy split the variety series category into two, one for variety talk shows and one for variety or sketch series like Saturday Night Live, making space for more contenders in each.
Joining Game of Thrones, Mad Men and Better Call Saul in the best drama category are Downton Abbey, Homeland, House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, which switched over from comedy series contention because of an Emmy rules change.
The graphic violence of Game of Thrones has drawn gasps, even from fans. Its depiction of a young bride's wedding-night rape by her brutish husband was more implied than shown, but it drew swift and harsh reaction. One viewer, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., tweeted that the scene was "gratuitous" and "disgusting," adding that she was "done" with the show.
The Emmy Awards will air Sept. 20 on Fox, with Andy Samberg as host.
HBO received a leading 126 nominations, followed by ABC with 42, CBS and NBC with 41, FX Network with 38, Fox with 35, Netflix with 34, Comedy Central with 25 and Showtime with 18.
Information for this article was contributed by Derrik J. Lang of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/17/2015