Emmys: Best Supporting Actress

Supporting Actress (Comedy)

My picks: Kelly Bishop (Gilmore Girls), Jessica Walter (Arrested Development), Nicolette Sheridan (Desperate Housewives), Christina Hendricks (Kevin Hill), Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development), Rachael Harris (Fat Actress)

I could basically narrow this category down to three contenders: Jessica Walter is currently giving television's funniest female performance as Arrested Development's acid-tongued alcoholic matriarch Lucille Bluth (like her TV son Will Arnett she should've won an Emmy last year, but wasn't nominated); Nicolette Sheridan was one of last season's biggest surprises, wringing every laugh out of her role, and occasionally upstaging the stars, as neighborhood slut Edie Britt on Desperate Housewives; and, best of all, Gilmore Girls' Kelly Bishop who has played the conniving but terribly well-mannered Emily Gilmore for five seasons now and recently finished her best season yet with memorable storylines including a separation from her husband and an attempt to break-up her daughter's relationship.

I've rounded out my picks with three actresses who made the most of lesser material (a stronger case could've been made for Arrested's Portia de Rossi last season). If I had seen more of the final season of Everybody Loves Raymond I may have included Doris Roberts who is sure to pick up an Emmy nom, as will Will & Grace vet Megan Mullally. I think Walter and Sheridan will join them along with a possible surprise nominee. Depending on their category placement recurring guest stars Harriet Sansom Harris (Desperate Housewives' Felicia Tilman) and Debi Mazar (Entourage publicist Shauna) also merit consideration here.

Supporting Actress (Drama)

My picks: Robin Weigert (Deadwood), Paula Malcolmson (Deadwood), C.C.H. Pounder (The Shield), Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under), Justina Machado (Six Feet Under), Sunjin Kim (Lost), Shohreh Aghdashloo (24), Kim Dickens (Deadwood), Sarah Paulson (Deadwood), Laurel Holloman (The L Word)

To anyone who's never seen the gritty Western Deadwood, the show may appear to be a man's world. But for anyone who has seen it, it's impossible to miss some of television's most intriguing and multi-layered female characters. Topping that list are Robin Weigert's drunken, foul-mouthed Calamity Jane and Paula Malcolmson's foul-mouthed, well-intentioned prostitute Trixie. It's difficult to say which one was better this season, both of them command undivided attention as soon as they enter a scene.

Over at The Shield, C.C.H. Pounder continues to provide the moral center to a corrupt world as Detective Claudette Wyms (and this season had to tangle with a new female captain, a job she nearly had), while Six Feet Under's Rachel Griffiths (Brenda) and Justina Machado (Vanessa) weathered rocky relationship waters.

Essential newcomers last season were Sunjin Kim as Lost's Korean desperate housewife Sun (her showcase episodes House of the Rising Sun and ... In Translation were phenomenal) and Shohreh Aghdashloo in the too-brief role of Dina Araz, a mother first and terrorist second, on 24 (it was her work and storyline that was essential to the success of the season, once she left the show never completely recovered). Two other actresses, Huff's Blythe Danner and Rescue Me's Diane Farr, delivered especially strong work but were hampered by uneven writing and a late-in-the-season introduction respectively.

Weigert, Malcolmson, Aghdashloo and even Kim have good shots at nominations. Pounder unfortunately is an underdog while Griffiths usually submits in the lead category (deserving co-star Lauren Ambrose usually submits supporting). Hopefully this category will see an infusion of new blood and familiar faces like West Wing's Stockard Channing and Janel Maloney and Judging Amy's Tyne Daly will politely be left out.