Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Chandra Wilson React to Emmy Award Nominations

Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris not only announced the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations live on Thursday, July 17 at the Academy’s Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood; both actors received nominations for their work in their respective sitcoms, Pushing Daisies and How I Met Your Mother.

The Emmys will air on September 21 (8:00-11:00 p.m. EST) on ABC and will originate from the new NOKIA Theatre in Los Angeles. HBO’s miniseries John Adams led the pack with 23 nominations; and the cable network received a total of 85 nominations. Other leaders include NBC’s comedy 30 Rock with 17 nods and AMC’s drama Mad Men with 16 nominations.

Chenoweth and Harris both expressed surprise at their nominations. “Honest to goodness, I did not expect it,” said Chenoweth. “In rehearsal this morning, they didn’t have our categories, so Neil and I figured we’d have to look it up online after it was over. So when they said ‘now we have a surprise for you,’ I just couldn’t believe it. I’m still in shock.”

Harris said announcing all the names turned out to be a plus. “I wasn’t really aware of the nail-biting, watching-the-TV, crossing-the-fingers type of moment other people have,” he said. It’s his second consecutive nomination. “Two times is cool, but if it’s get to be three, and then on and on, it looks like I’m a constant loser,” he says. As to where he might put the Emmy if he wins this year, he replies. “I have a lot of art in the house. Would an Emmy be considered art? If so, then it would have a place on one of the walls.”

One person who didn’t hear her name being mentioned — though it was read aloud — was Grey’s Anatomy Chandra Wilson. “I had the intention to watch (the live broadcast) but I woke up at 4:30am and fell back to sleep, and slept through it!” she says.

A slew of theater actors were recognized by the Academy: Ralph Fiennes (Bernard and Doris), Glenn Close (Damages), Judi Dench (Cranford), Phylicia Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun), Audra McDonald (A Raisin in the Sun), Laura Linney (John Adams), Kevin Spacey (Recount), Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment), Dianne Wiest (In Treatment), Eileen Atkins (Cranford), Charles Durning (Rescue Me), Ellen Burstyn (Big Love), Diahann Carroll (Grey’s Anatomy), Cynthia Nixon (Law & Order: SVU), and Alec Baldwin, Carrie Fisher, Edie Falco, Rip Torn, and Elaine Stritch (all for 30 Rock), Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Paul Giamatti (John Adams), Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?), Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds), Sally Field (Brothers and Sisters), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Catherine Keener (An American Crime), Susan Sarandon (Bernard and Doris), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), Zeljko Ivanek (Damages), Michael Emerson (Lost), John Slattery (Mad Men), David Morse (John Adams), Stephen Dillane (John Adams), Bob Balaban (Recount), Jean Smart (Samantha Who?), Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy), Stanley Tucci (ER). Glynn Turman (In Treatment), Robert Morse (Mad Men), Oliver Platt (Nip/Tuck), and Polly Bergen (Desperate Housewives).

Other notable nominees include A Raisin in the Sun, The 61st Annual Tony Awards, The Kennedy Center Honors, and Lonny Price for his direction of the PBS presentation of Broadway’s Company.

For more information, visit www.emmys.org.