Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Fall TV
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Here are all 70 puppies competing in Puppy Bowl XVII

      Read More Next
    • The best books to keep you warm this January

      Read More Next
    • The Masked Dancer revealed: Every unmasked celebrity on season 1

      Read More Next
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Fall TV
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards

    Awards

    See All Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Gallery Chevron Right
  3. Emmys: Snubs in Drama? Vote to Make 'em EWwy 2012 Winners!

Emmys: Snubs in Drama? Vote to Make 'em EWwy 2012 Winners!

You spoke (loudly) about the drama performers and series Emmy overlooked this year. Now you can help make things right: Click through the nominees in Lead Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress, and Series; each category ends with a ballot -- vote!
By EW Staff
Updated July 20, 2015 at 03:23 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet

1 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Drama Series: Fringe

Credit: Andrew Matusik/FOX

The fourth season of Fringe wasn't perfect. The bold decision to reboot both of the show's universes gave the early episodes a feeling of treading water; the season finale was a confusing mish-mash. But no other show on television now does as good a job of juggling lofty sci-fi concepts with thrillingly intimate human emotions. One-off episodes like ''And Those We've Left Behind'' confirm the show's place as the heir to X-Files; meanwhile, the standout dystopian flashforward ''Letters of Transit'' feels like old-fashioned pulp with a distinctively modern heart. —Darren Franich

1 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Drama Series: The Good Wife

Credit: Justin Stephens/CBS

Its third season was the first not to earn a Best Drama Series Emmy nomination, and we're not sure why: The show continued to masterfully weave together storylines of office, family, and Chicago politics with interesting cases, clever guest casting, and some of the steamiest sex scenes on network TV. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi's interview with executive producers Robert and Michelle King.

2 of 30

3 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Drama Series: Justified

Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX

You just want to know how the show's writers (and star/producer Timothy Olyphant, as Kentucky-bred Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens) make the show so damn cool — which is why we checked in with showrunner Graham Yost for weekly postmortems during season 3. You won't find more creative violence or more interesting villains — including Neal McDonough's Oxy-pushing pedophile mobster Quarles and Mykelti Williamson's cleaver-toting holler know-it-all Limehouse — on the dial. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi's interview with executive producer Graham Yost.

3 of 30

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Drama Series: Revenge

Credit: Colleen Hayes/ABC

How funny that after years of network execs trying to find ''The Next Lost'' the show that would emerge as the strongest contender for the title would be a sudser with almost nothing in common with Lost. Nothing in common, that is, except for the fact that Revenge also takes place on an exotic island full of history-haunted characters working out daddy issues related to the tragic crash of an airplane. Emily Thorne's quest to avenge her father, who was framed for bombing an airliner by the billionaire fat cats really responsible, is both an escapist plunge into Hamptons decadence and a 99%-friendly critique of it. It turns out the Klingons were wrong — Revenge is a dish best served soapy, not cold. —Christian Blauvelt

Read Jessica Shaw's interview with executive producer Mike Kelley.

4 of 30

Advertisement

5 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Drama Series: Sons of Anarchy

Credit: FX

With the adrenaline rush Clay's (Ron Perlman) downfall and Jax's (Charlie Hunnam) rise provided, it's easy to overlook how artfully that road was paved by creator Kurt Sutter right from the start of season 4. His ability to juxtapose moments of brutality and tenderness, both with emotional resonance, whether in an episode or even a single montage, has never been fully appreciated. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi's interview with executive producer Paris Barclay.

5 of 30

6 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

6

Take Our Poll Best Drama

NEXT: On to the acting categories!

6 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actor: Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead

Credit: Gene Page/AMC

With every day that passes in the zombie apocalypse, Rick Grimes comes more and more unglued. Fortunately, Lincoln makes Grimes' descent into Lord of the Flies-esque authoritarianism oddly appealing — the necessity for constant violence is turning him into an action hero, potentially at the cost of his soul. —Darren Franich

7 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actor: Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy

Credit: FX

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Thanks to Hunnam's layered performance, Jax — the gun-toting, drug-smuggling biker with a tortured soul — is dangerous and smart enough to keep up with anyone (gangs, cartels, the Feds, Ron Perlman's Clay), but also tender and level-headed enough to truly love Tara (Maggie Siff) and want what's best for their family. No matter how many seasons we watch him, that depth is always disarming. —Mandi Bierly

8 of 30

Advertisement

9 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman, Luck

Credit: Gusmano Cesaretti/HBO

So you didn't watch Luck. It's okay — pretty much no one else did, either. But consider checking it out, on DVD or On Demand or HBO Go. Trust us, you're missing out on one of the finest late-career performances by one of the great American actors. Hoffman's Ace Bernstein is a true original — a vengeful criminal, a wily flirt, and an old man whose exhaustion is matched only by a curious capacity for hope. —Darren Franich

9 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actor: Hugh Laurie, House

Credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX

In the medical series' eighth and final season, Dr. House's bedside manner had to shift from acerbic and cold to warm-hearted and genuinely concerned — the patient, after all, was his best and only friend, Robert Sean Leonard's Dr. Wilson. Laurie's work in the finale, in which he faked his own death so that the buddies could ride off into the sunset on their matching motorcycles, was masterful. —Annie Barrett

10 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actor: Timothy Olyphant, Justified

Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX

Why didn't Olyphant, who received an Emmy nom last year, score another one? We can only assume it's because voters don't realize how much of Raylan Givens' best lines and moves come directly from him. Or maybe they didn't see the subtle way he played that final scene in the finale when Raylan told Winona (Natalie Zea) that his father had just seen ''a man in a hat'' pointing a gun at Boyd (Walton Goggins) when his father shot that man — then put on his trademark Stetson? Your guess is as good as ours. —Mandi Bierly

11 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

12

Take Our Poll Best Actor

NEXT: Vote for Best Actress

12 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actress: Anna Torv, Fringe

Credit: Liane Hentscher/Fox

Anna Torv had already played three or four different versions of Olivia Dunham when the fourth season of Fringe gave the actress her biggest challenge yet. Playing an Olivia in a universe without Peter, Torv got to portray her once-troubled character as a woman whose life was simultaneously better, yet emptier. Watching her fall back in love with Peter was one of the central joys of the TV season. —Darren Franich

13 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actress: Katey Sagal, Sons of Anarchy

Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX

in season 4, under the weight of a secret neither of them wanted revealed, Gemma's (Sagal) marriage to Clay (Ron Perlman) frayed to the point that he violently beat her and she wanted him dead. As EW critic Ken Tucker wrote when he reviewed ''Hands,'' the episode with this breaking point, ''The cold-blooded way Katey Sagal delivered Gemma's final pronouncement — 'Clay can't be saved... No, he's not going down by law. He's gonna die by the hand of the son' — was bone-rattling.'' But even in her most quiet moments, Sagal imbues Gemma with the strength to rise up. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi's interview with Katey Sagal.

14 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

15 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actress: Kerry Washington, Scandal

Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC

For those who watched its seven-episode first season, Shonda Rhimes's D.C.-set series became the most addictive new political soap since The Good Wife. The allure is not only thanks to the steamy history between Washington's powerful crisis manager Olivia Pope and the married President of the United States (Tony Goldwyn), but also due to Washington's believability as a complicated woman simultaneously fearless and weak enough to get herself into this mess, and clever enough to get herself out of it. —Mandi Bierly

15 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

16 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actress: Madeleine Stowe, Revenge

Credit: Colleen Hayes/ABC

Stowe's Victoria Grayson is the ice queen of the Hamptons, a woman so caught up in her own power and privilege that she'll urge her daughter to prostitute herself and have her son beaten up in prison. Someone who uses wit like a weapon, whose smile is deadlier than her frown. But this is no one-dimensional harpy. The triumph of Stowe's performance is that she also shows the cracks in Victoria's steely façade, the heartbreak that's resulted from her lifelong pursuit of security over love. —Christian Blauvelt

Read Lynette Rice's interview with Madeleine Stowe.

16 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

17 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Actress: Nina Dobrev, The Vampire Diaries

Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/The CW

We know to some, nominating an actress who plays a teenage girl torn between two vampire brothers on a CW show sounds like a punchline, but if you saw Dobrev's drowning death scene in the season 3 finale — in which she out underwater-emoted swimming Shailene Woodley in The Descendants — you're not laughing. You're getting chills again just thinking about it. —Mandi Bierly

17 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

18 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

18

Take Our Poll Best Actress

NEXT: Vote for Best Supporting Actor

18 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

19 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actor: Joel Kinnaman, The Killing

Credit: Carole Segal/AMC

In a show many considered unwatchable for its molasses-ooze pacing, Kinnaman's bravura turn as Det. Stephen Holder was a brilliantly frenetic bright spot. He provided much need levity and — as Holder's partner Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) increasingly lost control of her world — stability. All of which barely scratches the surface of Kinnaman's range, from twitchy highs to suicidal lows. The Killing may have been ended, but, if we're very lucky, Kinnaman is only at the beginning of a long career to come. —Lanford Beard

Read Lanford's interview with Joel Kinnaman.

19 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

20 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actor: John Noble, Fringe

Credit: Liane Hentscher/Fox

Walter Bishop began season 4 as a shut-in shell of his old self, an agoraphobe too scared to even leave his own laboratory. Walter's gradual, tentative return to the world felt like watching the rebirth of his soul. Credit to John Noble, who has turned Walter into a character who is variously a lovable eccentric and a tragic hero. (This being Fringe, Noble also did triple-duty as the newly-heroic Walternate and the insidious brain-undamaged Walter briefly glimpsed in ''Letters of Transit.'') —Darren Franich

Read Sandra Gonzalez's interview with John Noble.

20 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

21 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actor: John Slattery, Mad Men

Credit: AMC

Slattery's performance as the pleasantly sozzled quip-machine Roger Sterling has always been nothing less than a delight, but in Mad Men's recent season, Roger explored some fascinating new dimensions. Quite literally — his experience with LSD proved to be one of the high points of the season, played with brilliant subtlety and brio by Slattery. Quite frankly, this is one of the snubs this year that stings the most. — Adam B. Vary

Read Jessica Shaw's interview with John Slattery.

21 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

22 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Pitt, Boardwalk Empire

Credit: Abbot Genser/HBO

No one can say Jimmy Darmody didn't go out with a bang. Once a petulant upstart, Pitt grew Jimmy into a man at peace with the consequences of all his actions. His ill-fated arc leading up to season 2's shocker finale was the kind of car crash storytelling from which viewers couldn't turn away, and Pitt's powerful performances carried the sometimes skin-crawling scenes of Jimmy's complicated backstory. —Lanford Beard

Read James Hibberd's interview with Michael Pitt.

22 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

23 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actor: Walton Goggins, Justified

Credit: Frank Ockenfels III/FX

Like costar Timothy Olyphant, Goggins didn't repeat last year's Emmy nomination, which is a shame considering the way his always thought-provoking Boyd Crowder was able to execute a friend (Kevin Rankin's Devil) who betrayed him with compassion and make a scene comparing bullet wound scars with lady love Ava (Joelle Carter) downright romantic. —Mandi Bierly

Read Mandi's interview with Walton Goggins.

23 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

24 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

24

Take Our Poll Best Supporting Actor

NEXT: Vote for Best Supporting Actress

24 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

25 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actress: Erika Christensen, Parenthood

Credit: Trae Patton/NBC

Christensen packed an emotional punch while tackling the storyline about Julia's baby adoption troubles and rose to the challenge in many tough scenes. (That hospital scene with Zoe? Crushing!) —Sandra Gonzalez

25 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

26 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actress: Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire

Credit: Abbot Genser/HBO

With each minute on screen, Macdonald has been crafty in unspooling deep, complex motivations of her character Margaret Schroeder. Since her introduction as a plain, put-upon victim of circumstance, Macdonald has seamlessly transformed Margaret to a self-empowered modern woman who calculates her moves based on their repercussions. From a battle for her child's life to a lusty affair with an associate of her vengeful, power-hungry lover Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), it became clear that Margaret could be fearless under the right conditions. By the end of season 2, just as she was staging her most defiant chess move against Nucky, you understood exactly why she suited him in the first place. —Lanford Beard

26 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

27 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actress: Kristin Bauer van Straten, True Blood

Credit: John P. Johnson/HBO

Always a scene-stealer, she's eligible for episodes from 2011. With her biting Southern drawl and seemingly impenetrable confidence, season 4 proved to be Bauer van Straten's breakout year as Pam rotted from the inside out, finally breaking down over a growing alienation from her maker Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) due, in part, to the show's magical leading lady Sookie (Anna Paquin). Consider this speech: ''Sookie. I am so over Sookie and her precious faerie vagina and her unbelievably stupid name. F--- Sookie! I've been with Eric over 100 years. I've watched him seduce supermodels and princesses and spit out their bones when he is finished. How can someone named Sookie take him away from me?'' Who else could make this long-simmering outburst at once so hilarious and so vulnerable? —Mandi Bierly

27 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

28 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actress: Lena Headey, Game of Thrones

Credit: Paul Schiraldi/HBO

Game of Thrones' ''Blackwater'' episode was justifiably praised for its movie-worthy vision of an epic medieval battle. But for my money, the best parts of the episode belonged to Lena Headey. Holding court in Maegor's Holdfast with the women, servants, and guardsmen, Cersei Lannister got gloriously drunk and delivered an assortment of drop-the-mic lines like ''The gods have no mercy. That's why they're gods.'' Headey brings a grim determination, at once fatalistic and amused, to every word Cersei says. —Darren Franich

28 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

29 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Siff, Sons of Anarchy

Credit: James Minchin III/FX

Creator Kurt Sutter has said he's able to tell the most compelling parts of his story through the eyes of the women. For many fans, the lasting image of season 4 will be doctor Tara lying in a hospital bed with nerve damage to her hand, robbed of her only way out of the life she's chosen. Siff had to make us feel like we, too, were trapped and had been fools to think we could live in Jax's world and not pay a price. And she did, first by despondently talking of fate, then by screaming. —Mandi Bierly

29 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement

30 of 30

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

30

Take Our Poll Best Supporting Actress

Thank you for voting for the 2012 EWwys!

30 of 30

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By EW Staff

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 30 Best Drama Series: Fringe
2 of 30 Best Drama Series: The Good Wife
3 of 30 Best Drama Series: Justified
4 of 30 Best Drama Series: Revenge
5 of 30 Best Drama Series: Sons of Anarchy
6 of 30 6
7 of 30 Best Actor: Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead
8 of 30 Best Actor: Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy
9 of 30 Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman, Luck
10 of 30 Best Actor: Hugh Laurie, House
11 of 30 Best Actor: Timothy Olyphant, Justified
12 of 30 12
13 of 30 Best Actress: Anna Torv, Fringe
14 of 30 Best Actress: Katey Sagal, Sons of Anarchy
15 of 30 Best Actress: Kerry Washington, Scandal
16 of 30 Best Actress: Madeleine Stowe, Revenge
17 of 30 Best Actress: Nina Dobrev, The Vampire Diaries
18 of 30 18
19 of 30 Best Supporting Actor: Joel Kinnaman, The Killing
20 of 30 Best Supporting Actor: John Noble, Fringe
21 of 30 Best Supporting Actor: John Slattery, Mad Men
22 of 30 Best Supporting Actor: Michael Pitt, Boardwalk Empire
23 of 30 Best Supporting Actor: Walton Goggins, Justified
24 of 30 24
25 of 30 Best Supporting Actress: Erika Christensen, Parenthood
26 of 30 Best Supporting Actress: Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
27 of 30 Best Supporting Actress: Kristin Bauer van Straten, True Blood
28 of 30 Best Supporting Actress: Lena Headey, Game of Thrones