HBO led the way at Thursday night's Emmy Award nominations, with 86 nods compared to second place rival ABC's 70 nominations.

HBO programmes that could be in line for an award include The Sopranos, Deadwood and BBC co-production Rome. The second series of Ricky Gervais' Extras picked up four nominations, including one for outstanding directing for a comedy series and one for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series.

Ugly Betty and medical drama Grey's Anatomy were among the ABC programmes nominated for an award.

NBC'sHeroes, which will make its terrestrial debut at 9pm on BBC Two next Wednesday, was also nominated.

The 59th Annual Emmy Awards will take place on Sunday, September 16.