HBO led all television networks with 16 Writers Guild Awards nominations on Thursday, as its series Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and True Detective each earned multiple nods for honours writers bestow on their peers.

Medieval fantasy Game of Thrones, murder-mystery True Detective, CBS’s political drama The Good Wife, Netflix’s political thriller House of Cards and AMC’s period portrait of the advertising world, Mad Men, will each vie for the top award of best drama series.

Top comedy series nominees include tech world satire Silicon Valley, comedian Louis C.K.’s irreverent take on modern urban life, Louie on FX, political satire Veep as well as Netflix’s jailhouse series Orange is the New Black and Amazon’s transgender family show Transparent.

The Writers Guild of America will hand out its awards at ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles on February 14.

The WGA’s film writing awards nominations will be announced on January 7.

The next closest network to premium cable’s HBO was broadcaster Fox, with eight nominations. The network swept the animation category as The Simpsons earned four nods, the most of any show, and Bob’s Burgers two.

Writers for Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife and Sundance TV’s Southern Gothic series Rectify each earned nominations for the scripts of individual episodes for a drama series. HBO’s Prohibition drama Boardwalk Empire received two nods in the category despite missing out on the top drama prize.

The nominees for best comedy episode include two episodes of ABC’s Modern Family, Fox’s New Girl, Orange is the New Black, Louie and Transparent.

Online streaming services Netflix and Amazon each earned three total nominations, while networks ABC and CBS each had six nominations. NBC earned four nods.