HBO leads the way in Golden Globe TV nominations

• Last year's series winners, 'Homeland' and 'Modern Family,' return as leading nominees
• 'Mad Men' fails to make drama series cut
• HBO's TV movies help cable network garner 17 nominations

Cable television continues to be the darling of the Golden Globes.

Led by a dominant HBO, cable productions racked up 35 nominations at today's announcement of contenders for the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards in January. By comparison, the Big 4 broadcast networks and PBS tallied 19. DirecTV had one nomination.

Last year's drama and comedy/musical series winners, Showtime's Homeland and ABC's Modern Family, respectively, were nominated again in those categories.

HBO, powered by 10 nominations for its films, scored 17 nominations, 10 more than the second-place finisher, fellow pay-cable network Showtime.

The HBO film Game Change topped all TV series, miniseries and movies with five nominations, followed by the top series nominee, Homeland, with four. Modern Family, PBS' Downton Abbey: Season 2 and the HBO film The Girl tallied three nominations.

New shows had a tougher time cracking the top series categories than they did last year. HBO's Girls and NBC's Smash made the cut in the comedy/musical field and HBO's The Newsroom was named a top drama nominee. Another new series, ABC's Nashville, picked up acting nominations for Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere.

The USA miniseries Political Animals, which will not return, received two nominations, one for best miniseries/TV movie and the other an acting nod for Sigourney Weaver.

Past winner Mad Men was a notable absentee in the drama series category. Jon Hamm, who plays Don Draper, received the much-honored AMC series' lone nomination.

2012 acting winners Claire Danes of Homeland and Matt LeBlanc of Showtime's Episodes will have a chance to repeat, but two other winners in the lead acting categories, Kelsey Grammer of Starz's Boss and Laura Dern of HBO's Enlightened, were not nominated. Enlightened doesn't begin its second season until January.

Former Globe winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a nominee for HBO's Veep, says the creative freedom of cable may have something to do with its strong showing in the nominations.

"I have great affection for network television. I've spent years doing network television, but having said that, now that I'm working on cable and for HBO specifically, from a creative point of view, there's great license. As an actress and as a producer on the show, it's a tremendous luxury and I'm very grateful for it," she says. "You can't believe that you have the license that you do and I sort of pinch myself about it. They're very supportive from a creative point of view. We've had weeks and weeks and weeks of rehearsal for the show. Just that alone speaks to the level of respect they have for the process."

The Globes don't have the same importance for television that they do for motion pictures, where nominations can be a precursor to Oscar recognition. However, they can have value beyond the honor itself, bringing attention -- and the possibility of additional viewers -- to a show.

First-time nominee Britton hopes Nashville can benefit from the recognition she and Panettiere have received.

"I'm no stranger to being on shows that are critically acclaimed but are not necessarily doing as well in the ratings as the network hopes," says the actress, an Emmy nominee for Friday Night Lights. "The thing that's wonderful about these awards besides the pure honor of it is that it does create awareness for the show. So, it will be interesting to see if maybe more (viewers) become aware of the show and really put it in a position that will help the network keep it on the air."