Emmy nominations: The most shocking snubs

They wuz snubbed! Even with the TV Academy expanding the outstanding series categories in the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards to include seven nominees instead of six for 2015 — and Tatiana Maslany’s surprise inclusion — there was still plenty of Twitter-rage this morning as fan favorites were denied, shut out, ignored, and utterly dismissed by Emmy voters as not being … quite … good … enough.

Here are the biggest snubs. May each find redemption in the Emmy afterlife because they will find none in the Nokia Theater this year (in no particular order):

1. Empire shut-out of the drama series category. Fox’s hip-hop drama is unconventional, acclaimed, trend-setting and broadcast TV’s highest-rated show. And also it’s apparently less interesting to Emmy voters than the yawner fifth season of Downton Abbey. Terrence Howard was left in the cold, too. At least co-star Taraji P. Henson scored a nomination, as expected, for best actress in a drama.

2. Gina Rodriguez for Jane the Virgin. She was nominated for a Golden Globe. She actually won the Golden Globe! Then she was left out of the Emmys. Her show didn’t make the cut either. But she can take consolation from …

3. Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife. Last year’s winner, this year’s snub. Also: Kerry Washington was snubbed for Scandal.

4. Ellie Kemper for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Oddsmakers (including us) predicted Netflix’s new comedy would score Kemper a big nomination this year. Wrong! (I called Amy Schumer though, so there). But the Schmidt is the same boat as …

5. Jim Parsons and The Big Bang Theory. Both the star and the show were left out this year. Parsons is particularly surprising given he’s won this category a record-tying four times. Thankfully, HBO’s geek-love series Silicon Valley deservedly scored another series nod (maybe next year Thomas Middleditch will get recognized?).

6. Lena Dunham for Girls. Enthusiasm is waning for the HBO comedy, but oddsmakers (except us, this time) still thought Dunham would slide into a comedy actress nomination again.

7. NBC’s Parenthood. Those very faint hopes of final season recognition were snuffed out.

8. Sons of Anarchy for drama series. Hardcore fans just can’t understand why Sons never got into the big category. The rest of us try to be polite about it. Ignoring FX’s The Americans, however, is tougher to explain given the Cold War spy thriller’s overwhelming critical acclaim, especially since this was the show’s best year (the season averaged 92 out of 100 on Metacritic).

9. Showtime’s The Affair. Both the show and stars Ruth Wilson and Dominic West were all considered to have fair odds to break into their respective categories, but the acclaimed relationship drama was overlooked. Another example of Emmy voters telling Golden Globes voters: We don’t care what you think!

10. Assorted snub-lets. A few more that people didn’t necessarily expect to be nominated, but it would have been awfully nice if they had been in the major categories: Showtime’s Masters of Sex; Mandy Patinkin on Homeland (he was abducted, tortured, begged for death and still didn’t get nominated!); Vincent D’Onofrio, who brought to life an original and oddly sympathetic comic book villain on Netflix’s Daredevil, Nick Offerman was never recognized for Parks and Recreation; didn’t expect to see Fox’s Last Man on Earth crack the comedy category, but it certainly added a unique voice to the sitcom wasteland. And, okay, fine Twitter, I’ll add Outlander‘s Sam Heughan—happy?

[ew_image nid=”2249688″ align=”left” width=”380″ height=”380″]

•Emmys 2015: The best surprises