Emmy Nominees React! Who Said What?

Max Greenfield (New Girl)

"It's all very overwhelming. I've been grinding it for so long. To go from auditioning Zeke and Luther two and a half years ago to now being nominated for an Emmy is nuts. My life has changed pretty quickly... Zooey [Deschanel] and I are already discussing what we're going to wear. We're coordinating. We want to make sure we don't wear the same outfit because that would be humiliating."

Claire Danes (Homeland)

"I am honored to be recognized by the Academy among such a talented group of women. I am thrilled that Damian, Homeland, our amazing writers and director and so many others got nominated. It is a great day to be on set where we can all celebrate together."

Damian Lewis (Homeland)

"I'm over the moon to receive my first Emmy nomination. I feel so lucky to be a part of Homeland and am extremely grateful to the writing team for continuing to write such extraordinary roles for all of us. I couldn't feel more proud to be keeping company with such a fantastic range of talented actors."

Homeland EPs Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon

"Alex [Gansa] and I are both people who are very good at lowering our expectations, so everything is a gift, and a bonus," executive producer Howard Gordon says of Homeland's nine total nominations. Adds Gansa: "It's an exclamation point on the season for us, it really is. And whether we're [an] 'important' [show], we just hope to be good." Both EPs declare it "fantastic" that the nods were so plentiful and widespread across the Homeland team, including for series leads Damian Lewis and Claire Danes but also down to Main Title Theme Music and Sound Editing. "Howard and I talk about this all the time: Luck broke for us so many times on the show," says Gansa. "From casting to all the little choices you make along the way that could have gone horribly wrong. But for some cosmic reason, they all just broke our way that first season."

Mayim Biliak (The Big Bang Theory)

"I'm staying with my best friend in Atlanta and she said the look on my face when I found out was, 'God forbid — did somebody die?' It's an incredible day for the whole show and all of the writers and the cast. It's really special."

Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory

The two-time winner seemed more excited for his nominated co-star Mayim Bialik than he was for himself. "I was jumping up and down — I kid you not," he told TVLine from New York, where he's currently appearing on Broadway in Harvey. "I love her so much... I went to call her immediately but I didn't have her number — isn't that weird that I don't have her number yet? I don't think she wants me to have her number, which is OK. I still love her."

Connie Britton (American Horror Story)

"I was really surprised... Honestly, I'm just pinching myself right now. To come from Friday Night Lights, and then to get nominated for American Horror Story and then to go into shooting [the new ABC drama] Nashville... I don't know. It's a good day as an actor, I'll tell you that much."

Jessica Lange (American Horror Story)

"I want to thank the academy for honoring American Horror Story for all the incredible nominations. It's been wonderful to work on a show with such talented actors and the fabulous creative team of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and all the brilliant writers who make Constance such an interesting character to play."

Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)

"I am so incredibly honored to be nominated in this category with these amazing women. I admire each one of them and their performances so much; I just feel really flattered to be in their company. And of course I am so proud of the show and my family on Mad Men for each of their nominations. Each one of them is so deserved. I am so proud to be a part of this show and always will be."

Ben Feldman (Mad Men)

"To be included in the credits of a show I've loved since the moment it first aired is a tremendous honor. To be nominated for my role on the show is surreal. I am honored to play 'Michael Ginsberg' and this nomination is a testament to Matthew Weiner and Mad Men's incredible writing staff and crew. I have heard people say in the past it is an honor just to be nominated and I feel like I won when I walked onto the set this year."

Jared Harris (Mad Men)

"I couldn't have been more honored and even a bit overwhelmed when I heard the news. Every role on Mad Men is written with great detail and weight and Lane Pryce was no exception. I loved my time on the show– this is such an incredible way to walk away. Thanks to the incomparable Mr. Weiner and to my cast mates — Jon, John, Lizzie, Christina, Vinnie, Embeth, and everyone else — I can only be as good as those who I work opposite, and you are the best. To everyone at AMC, Lionsgate, the writers, and crew – my sincerest thank you. I had a blast."

Mad Men creator Matt Weiner

All told, Mad Men creator Matt Weiner says, "It was a pretty nice morning" as his AMC series once again led the Emmys pack with 17 total nominations, and in turn became the most-nominated basic cable drama of all time (amassing 85 nods). "In the future no one is even going to care about that particular statistic," he says of the milestone, "but I love that we are five seasons into it and still getting nominated. That is what's really been amazing." As for the day's other big stat — that this is the first time all of the Best Drama contenders have come from cable, suggesting that 13-episode runs offer an advantage of sorts over broadcast TV fare, Weiner scoffs, "I don't buy any of that. Honestly, every single one of these shows was [first] offered to network TV but they had no interest in them. [The broadcast nets] don't make shows like this."

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes

"It is a great honour and tremendously exciting to find our show on the list for this year's Emmy ceremony. The very steep competition can only be considered a compliment, since they are all fantastic programmes, and I hope they are as happy as I am, celebrating their nominations."

Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey)

"This is an incredible feeling. It is wonderful! To be nominated in this category and be in the company of these amazing women is a real honour and I am truly grateful to the Emmy voters for putting me in there!"

Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)

"To be part of a show like Downton Abbey is thrilling enough, that it has been embraced by American audiences to the extent it has and for the show to have received 16 nominations from the Emmy voters this year is astonishing. I can hardly believe that I've been nominated alongside five legends of contemporary television drama — Steve, Bryan, Michael, Damian and Jon. I'm truly honoured."

Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey)

"I'm overwhelmed. It is a real privilege to be in this ensemble and I genuinely did not expect this. But I'm very honoured."

Jim Carter (Downton Abbey)

"I'd just like to say I'm delighted for [creator] Julian [Fellowes] and everyone connected with the show. It's brilliant that Downton Abbey has been nominated in so many categories as it is a real team effort and the nominations reflect that."

Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey)

"This is the biggest and best shock of my life. I honestly didn't expect it and I'm overwhelmed. Amazing!"

Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad)

Anna Gunn's 5-year-old daughter Eila had crawled into bed with her last night, so when the call came in at 6 am PST Thursday about her Emmy nomination for Supporting Actress in a Drama, she had to keep things to a whisper — at first. "But I then escaped to the living room, where I started making a lot of noise," the actress shares of netting her first-ever Emmy nod. "And then of course both kids [including 11-year-old daughter Emma] woke up anyway! But then we all did a happy dance." Is the great news admittedly a bit bittersweet, with Breaking Bad now in its final season? "Boy, I'm trying not to think about [that], because it does start to make me melancholy," Gunn admits. "But Bryan [Cranston] gave me very good advice, to just savor every moment while it's here. So, it just feels fantastic to be recognized. I mean, to hear your name in the same breath as [Downton Abbey nominee] Maggie Smith? Just mind-blowing."

Modern Family co-creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd

Levitan: "If these nominations [had become] old-hat, I wouldn't have been lying in bed awake at 3:30 in the morning. [Laughs] For us right now, the big drive is to make sure we keep the quality up; that the perception is not that the show is in anyway losing its luster. So, it's very meaningful to us because it tells us that people are still enjoying the show."

Lloyd: "We love the fact that people are acknowledging that our actors are just fantastic, top to bottom. And we love the fact that they all submit themselves in the Supporting Actor category, because that's an acknowledgment that the show is an ensemble and that it's a team that makes Modern Family; it's not a star-driven show."

Ty Burrell (Modern Family)

"This is the third year in a row that I was woken up to that particular good news. The past two years I changed my daughter's diaper immediately — that was the first thing I did — and this morning the first thing that she did was stick her foot in my mouth. I don't know what that means, but it can't be good. [Laughs] It's basically telling me not to talk, I think."

Ed O'Neill (Modern Family)

"I am truly honored and grateful for the nomination, especially for a role and a show that I am so happy and proud to be a part of."

Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family)

"I'm thrilled to be included amongst one of Modern Family's 14 Emmy nominations! I am celebrating with 10 gorgeous, tall, leggy showgirls. Not because that's how I roll but because I'm in rehearsal for The Producers at The Hollywood Bowl. Also, because I like to make Eric Stonestreet jealous."

Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)

"This is such a special day for me and my cast! I'm so grateful to be recognized and especially happy to share this excitement with my Modern Family."

Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie)

"I am extremely surprised by the news and so grateful that people have enjoyed this season. I am very lucky to be a part of this show."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)

"I was in the middle of a dream and my publicist rudely awoke me with a phone call — I'm still kind of pissed about that. I don't like to be awaken. [Laughs] ... I just learned that [I'm now tied with Lucille Ball's record of 13 nominations] this morning; I had no idea beforehand and I'm stunned by it. I'm really actually made speechless by it and don't even know what to say."

Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)

"I love Nurse Jackie and I'm very honored to be recognized by my peers. This year is particularly exciting with several of my castmates also being nominated. It is great year for Nurse Jackie!"

Don Cheadle (House of Lies)

"Wow. My agent was right when he said, 'You don't have to bribe all the people to get nominated, Don. Just the right people.' This is the best $246,000 I've ever spent. Thanks, Emmy."

Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

"As the show enters its last season, I'm gratified to be nominated again by the Academy."

Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)

"There are so many amazing performances this year by actors I really admire, that it means a lot to me to be included among them."

Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat

"Thirteen just got lucky. That's an amazing number of nominations for Sherlock and we are beyond thrilled. This has been a passion project for everyone involved and it's success has overwhelmed all of us. I think we're even more overwhelmed this morning."

Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock)

"I am absolutely thrilled and could not have wished for a better birthday present especially because I am so delighted to see how well we have done across the board, particularly [director] Paul McGuigan getting a nod for his extraordinary vision."

Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live)

"It's a great honor, though there should be parentheses next to my name with all of the SNL writers. And now I have to kiss up to the cast members of Modern Family in hopes that they pull a Ving Rhames and give me their award when they win."

Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance)

"I am beyond thrilled and honored to be recognized by the TV Academy again this year and to be in the company of such talented people. I am so proud for our show to have achieved such recognition by the Academy in its ninth season, a real testament to the hard work of the cast and crew. It is a wonderful morning!"

Jimmy Fallon (Late Night With Jimmy Fallon)

"So happy to get nominated! Can't wait to get back to the Late Night office and celebrate! But first I gotta leave this theater and change out of this Batman costume."

Childrens Hospital creator Rob Corddry

"We've checked it twice and apparently it's real. I'm pretty giddy to be honest. And I hope my cast and crew know how much they are directly responsible for this. Is it not cool to say I really hope we win? Don't answer."

Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live)

"I had so much fun hosting — it was like coming home. Getting to go back and play with your friends... there's nothing better. Hosting SNL was my childhood dream, while other kids were playing princess I was doing impressions of Roseanne Roseannadanna. This is an amazing honor and one I share with Lorne, and all the incredible cast and writers of SNL.'"

Degrassi EP Linda Schuyler

Degrassi executive producer Linda Schuyler was under water this morning as the Emmy nominations hubbub got underway. "I had just come out of the swimming pool, had a nice dip, came in [to the office] and there was this email waiting for me," she said of learning about the long-running drama's nomination for Outstanding Children's Program. "I thought, 'Hmm, this is a nice way to start the day!'" Although she was pleasantly surprised by the recognition, she did admit that the category – which includes the much younger-skewing Good Luck Charlie, iCarly, Victorious and Wizards Of Waverly Place – makes for "strange" bedfellows. "In my ideal world, they would have two categories – a children's category and a youth category," she explained. "It is hard looking at Degrassi in the company of pre-school shows and shows for younger children. The topics we take on are very adult topics." However, she's more than pleased to be included. "If that's the category we're in, oh my goodness, we're happy! We'll take it!"

Margaret Cho (30 Rock)

"I'm so excited to have been nominated for an Emmy, especially for 30 Rock, which is an incredible show and also for playing a deranged and deceased world dictator who has divided the small country of my origin in two. That's the best part. I think that's what I'd call iron curtain irony."

Sarah Paulson (Game Change)

"I can't begin to express how exciting it is to be recognized alongside these extraordinary actresses. I love that I had the chance to play a character like Nicolle Wallace. She has this mix of political savvy and integrity that I found so interesting. I'm so thrilled Game Change was received so enthusiastically by the Academy."

Game Change writer Danny Strong

No amount of real-world politicking by Sarah Palin or her followers could keep HBO's Game Change from netting 11 Emmy nominations, including an Outstanding TV-Movie/Miniseries Writing nod for Danny Strong. "There certainly were a few detractors, but those were people on Governor Palin's payroll and a few blogs," Strong notes. "On the whole it was extremely well-received [as] a sympathetic portrayal of Governor Palin, Senator McCain and the other participants, so I never felt like anyone felt the film was anything but fair and accurate." Is there any way to give HBO a follow-up? "We would love to do a third election movie and make it a trilogy with Recount," Strong shares. "We've still got a few more months [before this year's presidential election], and [Game Change] was based on the last two months [of the 2008 race], so... who knows!"

Game Change director Jay Roach

"It's all about this phenomenal cast and Danny [Strong's] excellent script — he got it right. And HBO, the best and bravest studio in Hollywood, all these years."

Kevin Costner (Hatfields & McCoys)

"Filming the Hatfields & McCoys was one of the most fulfilling and inspiring projects that I've had the opportunity to work on, and it was truly gratifying that audiences tuned in to see our interpretation of this classic American story. To be recognized for our work by the members of Television Academy this morning is the cherry on top. I share this nomination with everyone who contributed to this project from the producers, cast and crew to the great team at History, who really stepped up to support the creative vision of the filmmakers."

Jeremy Davies (Justified)

"What can be said? Words feel hopelessly reductive.... Nevertheless, as my dear gramps used to say, this does indeed blow one's skirt up. If I ever stop turning recklessly high velocity cartwheels, I plan to celebrate by expressing God-sized thanks to [showrunner] Graham Yost, [FX president] John Landgraf and all my criminally gifted Justified family members, all of whom have somehow not been disinclined to work alongside a misfit thespian like myself."

Mare Winningham (Hatfields & McCoys)

"Some projects just have a special magic, a chemistry of actors, of producers, of director and location. History's Hatfields & McCoys was one of those filming experiences."