Nick Briggs/Carnival Film and Television for Masterpiece, via PBS  DOWNTON ABBEY Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville were nominated for the PBS series.  EVERY year PBS earns dozens of Emmy nominations and comes away with an armful of golden statuettes. But Paula Kerger, the PBS president, has never gone to the “Primetime Emmy Awards” — until now. “This is such an exciting year, I want to be in the room,” she said.  Her date? Donald Thoms, a PBS vice president for arts and cultural programming. Her dress? On Wednesday she laughed at that question. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet,” she said.  She has until Saturday, when she’ll fly to Los Angeles for Sunday night’s celebration of all things television, to be broadcast live on ABC and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.  What’s different this year, for PBS, is the sheer number of nominations — 58, up from 43 and 32 the two prior years — and the tantalizing possibility of winning what is arguably the most sought-after award of the night: best drama. The British historical drama “Downton Abbey,” brought to America by PBS and “Masterpiece,” is up for best drama alongside AMC’s “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and “Game of Thrones,” and Showtime’s “Homeland.”  “Mad Men,” set in the 1960s, has won the award four times in a row. Since the award was established in 1951 (the winner that year was “Pulitzer Prize Playhouse”) no drama has ever won five times, lending the Emmy proceedings this year a dramatic plot of its own: Can “Mad Men” make history? Or will a new entrant like “Downton Abbey” or “Homeland” break the streak?  Attention has centered on “Homeland,” the psychological thriller starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, in part because it is seen as Showtime’s best chance yet to upstage HBO, the network that consistently wins more Emmys than any other, and AMC, the network of “Mad Men.” Ms. Danes is a favorite in the category of best actress in a drama. Recognition at the Emmys would be well timed for “Homeland,” which has its second season premiere on the Sunday after the awards broadcast.  The third season of “Downton,” on the other hand, won’t start in the United States until January. (It had its premiere in Britain this week, provoking gripes from American fans about the delay.) “Downton” took home the prize for best mini-series or movie last year, but was submitted in the series category instead this year. Ms. Kerger called it extraordinary to be nominated for best drama. Public broadcasting last won an Emmy in the category in 1977, for “Upstairs, Downstairs,” another British import.  There’s been considerable online debate about the acting categories, since the “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston has won the best actor award thrice, depriving the “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm of a win. Mr. Hamm’s female counterpart on that show, Elisabeth Moss, similarly has yet to win best actress. Julianna Margulies, who won best actress last year for “The Good Wife,” is in contention again this year.  Though the Emmys, presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, tend not to turn niche dramas into mainstream successes (“Mad Men” drew two million to three million viewers per episode to its fifth season this year), they do signal to the wider world which shows have managed to break through the cultural clutter.  For the past two years ABC’s “Modern Family,” the country’s most-watched sitcom, has won the best comedy series award; this year it’s up against “30 Rock” on NBC, “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS, and “Girls,” “Veep” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on HBO.  HBO took an early lead, as it usually does, at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony for technical achievement last Saturday, with awards for everything from “Girls” to the original movies “Game Change” and “Hemingway & Gellhorn” to the documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World.” Its “Game of Thrones” won six awards, the most of any single series. ReelzChannel will show portions of the Creative Arts awards on Saturday night, the night before the main event on ABC.
PBS will find out on Sunday night if it won in categories like best drama for the series âDownton Abbey.â