It's the last year Jon Hamm could win an Emmy for his outstanding work as Don Draper on Mad Men, which came to an end in May. So yes, he was nominated — in the Lead Actor in a Drama Series category — but that's not all: Hamm is also up for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his hilarious performance as Kimmy's (Ellie Kemper) captor, Rev. Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, on Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. With 15 nominations and no wins, Hamm is the Susan Lucci of the Primetime Emmys. Maybe 2015 is his year?
Louis C.K.
Louis C.K. has been nominated in the Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category each year his FX series Louie has been on, so earning a fifth nomination in that category was no surprise. However, the fact that he was also nominated in the Guest Actor in a Comedy Series category for his hosting stint on Saturday Night Live — you know, the one in which he joked about the thought process of a child molester — is disappointing, to say the least.
Of course Christine Baranski would be nominated for her role as broach-wearing badass lawyer Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife (in the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category). But like Hamm and Allison Janney, Baranski also stretched her comedic legs this year, earning a Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination for her performance as Leonard Hofstadter's (Johnny Galecki) psychiatrist/neuroscientist/author mother Beverly on The Big Bang Theory.
Allison Janney
Last year, Allison Janney won two Emmys: one for her hilarious turn as recovering alcoholic Bonnie on Mom in the Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category, and another for her heartbreaking performance as Margaret Scully, the unknowing beard to an established dean, on Masters of Sex in the Guest Actress in a Drama Series category. This year, she's going for it again because she is Allison fucking Janney, people!
Gaby Hoffmann
Gaby Hoffmann has been impressing audiences since the early '90s, winning hearts in Field of Dreams and creating acronyms aplenty in Sleepless in Seattle. But this year, she's up for her first Emmys, earning not one but two: for playing the ridiculously bizarre Caroline Sackler, Adam's sister, on Girls (Guest Actress in a Comedy Series), and for playing Ali, the youngest daughter of newly out trans woman Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor), which she did gut-wrenchingly well in Transparent(Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series).
Honorable mention: Liev and Pablo Schreiber
OK, yes, sure, Liev and Pablo are not the same person. BUT they are half-brothers who both earned Emmy nominations this year and that's worth mentioning. Older brother Liev is up for his second Emmy — Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his eponymous role on Ray Donovan (his first was for Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance in RKO 281) — and Pablo earned his first Emmy in the Guest Actor in a Drama Series category, thanks to his love-to-hate character Pornstache on Orange Is the New Black. #TeamSchreiber