Always the bridesmaid

If history is any indication, this morning’s Emmy nominations will mark another year of looming frustration for those perennial bridesmaids left at the altar without winning a coveted statuette.

By now, their stories are familiar. They’re the TV stars like Hugh Laurie (“House”), Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”), Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”), Stephen Colbert (“The Colbert Report”) and Bill Maher (“Real Time”) who’ve stockpiled numerous Emmy nominations — a whopping 27 for Maher alone — yet have never won the Big Kahuna.

Call it prime-time’s version of Susan Lucci — who garnered 18 Daytime Emmy nods for “All My Children” before finally winning in 1999.

For Laurie, who’ll chalk up his seventh nomination as cranky Dr. Gregory House if he’s on this year’s ballot, it could be his last chance to win an Emmy (“House” ended its eight-season run in May).

“This is really an Emmy emergency for Dr. House,” says Tom O’Neil, editor of awards site goldderby.com. “Hugh Laurie is nominated every year but just cannot get any [TV] academy love. I think the reason has to do with Dr. House himself, who’s such a grouch and unlikable guy that it’s hard to wrap your arms around him.”

Maybe. But how to explain the snubbing of Hall, who’s gone Emmy-less despite four nominations — one for his role as David on HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and three more times as “Dexter’s” moonlighting serial killer, Dexter Morgan?

“I think it’s simply because his character is so reserved and understated,” says O’Neil. “The TV academy likes ‘big’ and ‘bombastic.’ ”

“You have to ask yourself who else is in competition that year. There’s always someone who has more momentum,” says Marc Berman, editor-in-chief of TV Media Insights.

Amy Poehler has been nominated twice for “Parks & Recreation” and twice for “Saturday Night Live” — but has been skunked every time. “It’s like when ‘The Sopranos’ was on,” Berman says. “Edie Falco and James Gandolfini always seemed to win.”

Maher, who’s been nominated in several different categories over the years — both for “Politically Incorrect” and “Real Time” — has “paid the price for being the honest curmudgeon,” O’Neil says.

And both O’Neil and Berman point to the strange case of Hamm who, despite his four nominations (thus far) as sleazy ad exec Don Draper on critical darling “Mad Men,” has lost every time — three straight times to Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) and, last year, to Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights”).

“The show wins for Best Drama but the actors can’t win any awards for acting,” says O’Neil. “That’s a mystery — a curse that plagues Jon Hamm.”