Christian Weber/ShowtimeSo, here's what Katherine Heigl will be missing.
Emmy's Drama Series acting categories looked to be neatly split among performances dedicated to law abiders and law breakers.
In the Lead Actor in a Drama series race, Jon Hamm, a two-timing man on Man Men, stood alongside Michael C. Hall, a serial killer with a bloody heart of gold on Dexter. Also nominated: Bryan Cranston, for his meth-lab-running Breaking Bad math teacher; Hugh Laurie, for his terminally cranky doctor in House; Gabriel Byrne, for his mesmerizing hands in In Treatment; and defending champ James Spader, for his Boston Legal shark.
Compared to the men, the Lead Actress race is full of positively heroic characters—provided you don't count Glenn Close's scarier-than-Alex Forrest lawyer from Damages.
But Close does count. In addition to the veteran star, the race shapes up like this: last year's winner, Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters); Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer); Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit); and Holly Hunter (Saving Grace). Only Close's and Field's characters don't work in law enforcement.
Battlestar Galactica fans, already shut out of the Drama Series race, lost out another chance to see their show up in a major category when Mary McDonnell, who made the final's short list, per the Los Angeles Times' Gold Derby blog, failed to make the cut. (The show did pick up five total nods, in writing and technical categories.)
Terry O'Quinn, meanwhile, won't be around to defend his Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy—the Lost star wasn't nominated. In fact, according to Gold Derby, he wasn't even a top 10 finalist.
Lost costar Michael Emerson was more fortunate. He's up for the Emmy, along with Boston Legal's William Shatner, Damages' Ted Danson and Zeljko Ivanek, and Mad Men's silver-haired sage, John Slattery.
Lost's Naveen Andrews and Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight were among the reported finalists who didn't make it into the nominee circle.
It wasn't a strong Emmys actingwise for Lost—Emerson was its only such nominee.
Heigl, meanwhile, won't defend her Supporting Actress Emmy by choice. She declined to submit her name for consideration in a move that was perceived to be a slap at Grey's Anatomy's writers.
The ABC show's scripts proved no detriment to Chandra Wilson and Sandra Oh, both nominated. They'll compete against Boston Legal's Candice Bergen, Brothers & Sisters' Rachel Griffiths and In Treatment's Dianne Wiest.
Robert Morse, who made his career as a corporate go-getter in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, was in the Guest Actor in a Drama Series Emmy race for returning to the 1960s in Mad Men. The other contenders: Stanley Tucci (ER), Glynn Turman (In Treatment), Robin Williams (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Oliver Platt (Nip/Tuck), and Denis Leary's Rescue Me dad Charles Durning.
Leary himself lost out on a Lead Drama Actor nomination—the first time in three years he's been shut out—as did Patrick Dempsey, stil looking for his first one ever for Grey's Anatomy.
HBO's Big Love made its only Emmy appearance in the Guest Actress category, thanks to Ellen Burstyn, who raised eyebrows a couple years back when she was nominated for a blink-and-you-literally-missed-it cameo in the TV movie Mrs. Harris.
Burstyn might not have any better luck winning this time out, not with heavyweight competition from Diahann Carroll (Grey's Anatomy), Anjelica Huston (Medium), Sharon Gless (Nip/Tuck) and Cynthia Nixon, rating her second non-Sex and the City nomination, this time for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.