Emmys 2014: ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ leads Fox’s Emmy nominations

Of the just 18 Emmy nominations received by Fox this year, seven went to the venerable dance reality competition “So You Think You Can Dance.” In its 11th season this summer, the show has received 42 nominations over the last nine years, with 11 wins so far.

Cat Deeley, host of the show since 2006, earned her fourth consecutive nomination for host of a reality or reality-competition program Thursday morning, telling the Los Angeles Times she got a call with the news at 5:45 a.m.

“You never know if you’re going to get nominated, and you have this internal chat with yourself where you turn around and go, ‘Look, you can’t be too disappointed if you don’t get nominated.’ ” Deeley said. “But it’s lovely, for me it’s that thing of having a nomination doesn’t change your life — the show being on for 11 seasons has completely.”

Deeley credited the show’s talented dancers and choreographers, who “raise the bar” each season.

“The fact that the audience still feel passionate about the show and still love the show, it’s great,” Deeley said. “I always say our show is completely polarizing; you either have people who have no idea that we even exist or people that are completely infatuated by the show and love it and don’t miss an episode.”

The show is nominated this year in the reality-competition program category, as well as for choreography and makeup.

Though the talented dancers come and go each season, the series centers around talented choreographers, Deeley and regular judges Nigel Lythgoe and the boisterous Mary Murphy. This season has already seen a high of just above 5 million viewers tuning in.

With its relatively paltry haul of 18 nominations, Fox fell far short of its network competitors in this year’s Emmy tally. CBS led with 47, followed by NBC with 46 and ABC with 37. Andy Samberg’s comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” scored two nominations for Fox in its freshman year. “The Simpsons” and the Super Bowl’s Bruno Mars halftime show were the only other programs to gain two nominations for the network.

Deeley said the cast and crew of the show would celebrate their nominations sometime next week and she’s already making plans with actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who’s a friend of Deeley’s and a seven-time guest judge on the show. Ferguson was nominated in the supporting actor in a comedy category for his role on “Modern Family.”

“We’ve already been on the phone with each other and talking about whether champagne is a protein or not. It’s so Hollywood, 9:30 in the morning — is champagne a protein?” Deeley said. “It’s lovely when the phones start pinging and when it’s congratulations both sides.”

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on NBC on Aug. 25. The ceremonies, which are being held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, will be hosted by Seth Meyers.

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