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The Tina Fey comedy 30 Rock and 1960s period drama Mad Men led the Primetime Emmy nominations on Thursday in a broad field full of fresh faces competing for U.S. television's highest honors.

NBC's 30 Rock had a leading 22 nominations, including best TV comedy and best actress for Fey, who took the acting Emmy in 2007. Mad Men on cable channel AMC had 16 nominations, including best drama. Both shows won the Emmy in those categories last year.

Among the networks, cable channel HBO lead the field with 99 primetime Emmy nominations, while Showtime had 29 and AMC pulled in 23. Broadcast network NBC earned 67 nominations, followed by ABC with 55, CBS with 49 and Fox with 42.

More nominees were added to the leading categories for the first time this year in a bow to growth of strong dramas and comedies on U.S. television, particularly on cable TV.

"There is so much good work, we have really recognized the diversity on television today," said John Shaffner, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy.

The Academy said 41 of the 83 nominations for comedy and drama programs were different from last year. They included drama newcomer Big Love, HBO's controversial polygamy series, animated comedy Family Guy on Fox and HBO comedy Flight of the Conchords.

Actor Simon Baker of the new CBS crime show The Mentalist got a best actor nomination, while Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory and Toni Collette of Showtime's United States of Tara were among the fresh faces in the comedy category.

Sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, which drew record audiences for NBC during last year's U.S. presidential election campaign, had 13 nominations, including a best guest actress nod for Fey's skits as Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Singer Justin Timberlake also received a guest actor nomination for Saturday Night Live.

Alac Baldwin was nominated best comedy actor for his role in the network TV spoof series 30 Rock, which dominated the Emmy nominations for a second year. Baldwin won the award last year.

MAD MEN HOPES FOR REPEAT

Mad Men, which won the best drama Emmy last year marking an award breakthrough for basic cable shows, will compete against legal program Damages on FX, Breaking Bad on AMC, serial killer drama Dexter of Showtime, Fox medical series House and ABC's Lost.

Along with 30 Rock, comedy series nominations included HBO's Entourage, NBC's The Office, Weed" from Showtime and How I Met Your Mother on CBS.

In the race for best actor in a drama, Bryan Cranston will hope to repeat his surprise win last year for his role as a chemistry teacher turned drug dealer in Breaking Bad. Jon Hamm of Mad Men, cranky doctor Hugh Laurie of House, Michael C. Hall for Dexter and Gabriel Byrne from In Treatment also are in the running.

Glenn Close, who plays a hard-bitten lawyer in Damages, detective Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer, Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Sally Field (Brothers and Sisters), Holly Hunter (Saving Grace) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) will compete in the best drama actress category.

The 61st Primetime Emmys will be handed out in Los Angeles on September 20 in a live broadcast ceremony.

HBO is owned by Time-Warner while Showtime is owned by Viacom and NBC is part of General Electric. ABC is part of Walt Disney Co and Fox is owned by News Corp.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Bill Trott)

Pics from last year's Emmy Awards