NEW YORK—HBO and Showtime dominated the television nominations for Golden Globe awards on Thursday, illustrating how the archrival pay cable networks have evolved to have very specific strengths.
HBO programs and actors were responsible for 15 nominations, with two-thirds of them in the movie or miniseries category. Three HBO productions—“The Normal Heart,” “Olive Kitteridge” and “True Detective”—were among the five nominees for best miniseries or TV movie. The others were FX’s “Fargo” and Starz’s “The Missing.”
Showtime, meanwhile, has supplanted HBO in critical eyes as the home of more highly regarded regular series. Eight of Showtime’s nine nominations were for programs or actors in series.
FX received eight nominations and Netflix seven—both more than the three largest commercial broadcasters (ABC, CBS and NBC) received combined.
“Fargo” was the individual program with the most nominations, earning five. HBO’s “True Detective” had four nominations, setting up a best actor matchup between its two stars, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.
The nominations for best TV drama illustrated the variety of programming services striving for excellence—two premium cable networks, a commercial broadcaster, a public broadcaster and online provider. Nominees were “The Affair” from Showtime; “Downton Abbey” from PBS; “Game of Thrones” on HBO; “The Good Wife” on CBS; and “House of Cards” on Netflix.
The tiny CW network got a big boost with its critically acclaimed new series, “Jane the Virgin,” earning nominations for best comedy and best actress for star Gina Rodriguez.
Other best comedy nominees are HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” Amazon’s “Transparent,” Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” and HBO’s “Girls.”
Showtime’s “The Affair” earned three nods: Besides the nomination for best drama, both actors portraying cheating spouses—Dominic West and Ruth Wilson—are nominees. Viola Davis of ABC’s new “How to Get Away With Murder” earned a best drama actress nomination.
Julianna Margulies of CBS’ “The Good Wife” and Claire Danes of Showtime’s “Homeland” also were nominated for best actress. Other drama acting nominees were Clive Owen of Cinemax’s “The Knick,” Liev Schreiber of Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” and James Spader of NBC’s “The Blacklist.”