Our Emmy Nominations Predictions

Joel McHale (Community) and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) will be announcing the names of this year's Emmy nominations Thursday live at 8:40 a.m. ET. Here's who we think will get the 2010 nods.

COMEDY

Best Series

30 Rock: Surprising guest stars Elizabeth Banks and Matt Damon proved that Tina Fey's brilliant love child is also a romantic.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Seinfeld reunion was a bright spot in this highly rated season.
Entourage: As Vince's career heats up, the supporting characters moved forward, including a romance for Turtle and a new company for Eric.
Glee: It's the belle of the ball; nobody else melded genres with such aplomb, a particular feat when one of them is the musical.
Modern Family: More laughs per minute made this dry, observational family comedy a winner.
The Office: A new corporate owner was both topical and vividly funny (see: guest star Kathy Bates).

Dark Horse: Cougar Town: It started off just cute, but as its ensemble found its groove, no sitcom cast worked better together as a unit.

Check out the winners and best moments from the 2009 Emmys

Best Supporting Actress

Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock: Her daffy obliviousness is a perfect foil to Fey's grounded, exasperated Liz Lemon.
Jane Lynch, Glee: Sue Sylvester, an archvillain, pierces the balloon that is the show's helium-inflated buoyancy. And it's delicious.
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds: Celia put her bullying skills to work within an inept Mexican guerrilla force to hilarious effect.
Busy Philipps, Cougar Town: TV is littered with blowsy best friends, but Laurie Keller makes you understand how she became a man eater.
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family: More than a funny accent, her fish-out-of-water wife plays May to Ed O'Neill's December with perfect restraint.
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty: In the end, Willi put the fascism in fashion, while finding true love and making her peace with the Meade family.

Dark Horse: Alison Brie, Community: She started as just unbalanced, but slowly revealed a charming, giggle-inducing romantic heroine.

Best Supporting Actor

Ty Burrell, Modern Family: He had us at "WTF." Among a talented ensemble, Phil Dunphy's cluelessness consistently achieved believable "dadness."
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men: His finicky second banana is the perfect foil to Charlie Sheen's rakish rogue.
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother: Just when we thought Barney had gone soft, his love/sex life went all hinky again, and we reveled in the chaos.
Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock: Kenneth, TGS' blind-faith acolyte, found his voice in a season marked by radical departures for the character.
Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock: This talented comic never lets you see the wheels spinning in what is a fully realized portrait of an egotistical actor.
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family: Sure, he plays gay for laughs, which isn't always a home run. But his performance as Cameron is warm enough to avoid the dark side of parody.

Dark Horse: Danny Pudi, Community: Abed's blank stare and definitive otherness is unlike any oddball we've seen on TV since Andy Kaufman's Latka on Taxi.

See our roundup of the hottest summer TV

Best Actress

Toni Collette, The United States of Tara: She added another character to her stable of varied alters, with a dead-on portrayal of an Upper West Side shrink.
Courteney Cox, Cougar Town: Jules' effervescent optimism perfumes this show with a camaraderie that elevates the entire cast.
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie: As Jackie slumped into depravity, this laser-precise character darkened, hardening into a nihilistic shell. Plus: It was funny.
Tina Fey, 30 Rock: Liz's sad-sack search for love reached new heights — and depths — this season.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine: The show may have been canceled, but not because this Seinfeld vet's comic pitch wasn't always anything but perfect.
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds: Nancy kept her signature nonchalance in the face of a vengeful drug lord/lover, the assignations of her off-kilter brother-in-law and the unraveling of her smart-aleck kids.

Dark Horse: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation: How did Leslie Knope get her groove back? She dialed down the crazy, revealing a funny, vulnerable striver whose tactics always delight.

Best Actor

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock: He remained a stentorian corporate suit, but his dual loyalties to Avery and Nancy showed us that he's quite an interesting boyfriend as well.
Steve Carell, The Office: He's easy to overlook among the crazy cast, but his romantic edge re-emerged in the finale, showing promise for Carell's final season.
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm: David's crankypants relentlessly pursued a reunion of the Seinfeld cast... so that he could reunite with his estranged wife.
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon found love ... sort of, revealing a new layer to what could have been a caricature.
Tony Shalhoub, Monk: Shalhoub sent off a softened Adrian Monk with an unexpected sweetness.
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men: It's hard to make a man-whore sympathetic, but somehow Sheen has imbued Charlie Harper with enough charm to do so for yet another season.

Dark Horse: Joel McHale, Community: Without his anchoring gimlet eye, the circus of freaks around him would fly untethered into surrealism.

Emmys moving to August in 2010

DRAMA

Best Series

Breaking Bad: As Walt became fully ensconced in an immoral underworld, a newly sober Jesse's partnership had deadly consequences.
Damages: A Bernie Madoff-inspired story line introduces us to a parade of ethically dubious family members, whose methods implicate Patty Hewes and Co.
Dexter: A tense tete-a-tete with serial killer Trinity ended in the shocking death of Dexter's wife Rita.
The Good Wife: The dumb-struck wife of a politician embroiled in a sex scandal got out of bed and went to work. The result is a great legal procedural... with an intriguing love triangle.
House: Dr. House's stint in rehab didn't stick, but perhaps the love of a good woman will.
Mad Men: Don Draper's fake identity was revealed, leading to new professional challenges and a quickie divorce.

Dark Horse: Lost: The academy changed its rules so that the two-and-a-half-hour finale was eligible for consideration. Will the voters be less conflicted than the audience?

Joel McHale and Sofia Vergara to unveil Emmy nominations on July 8

Best Supporting Actress

Christine Baranski, The Good Wife: Diane Lockhart is a post-feminist attorney who exchanges male posturing to show a woman with foibles and romantic tangles and the lessons of her mistakes.
Rose Byrne, Damages: Ellen left Patty's tutelage to work at the DA's office, but then you never really leave Patty, right? Her double-crosses were fun to watch.
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men: When Peggy got promoted and moved into the city, Moss presented a more confident young woman, who moved effortlessly from boardroom to bedroom.
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy: Cristina spent the season torn between a fulfilling relationship with Owen and a fulfilling career as a surgeon. That she never really chose is what made it exciting to watch.
Chloe Sevigny, Big Love: After regaining the trust of her sister-wives, Nicki went undercover in Bill's opponent's office. The season ended with her tearful admission of her infertility.
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy: Her jittery performance in the gunman-in-the-hospital finale merits her a spot here.

Dark Horse: Lisa Edelstein, House: Without Cuddy, we'd probably cheer on House's downward spiral. Her admonishing, though patient, support blossomed this season.

Best Supporting Actor

Michael Emerson, Lost: Benjamin Linus didn't receive his bright-light bath in the finale; instead, his character's untidy resolution vacillated between helpless and willful.
John Noble, Fringe: This season Noble showed us why his mad scientist's superpowered synapses might have shorted out, as we met the grieving father behind the brilliant nutjob.
Terry O'Quinn, Lost: We mourned the loss of John Locke, but embraced O'Quinn's solid portrayal of the Man in Black, which added fortitude to Locke's overriding ambivalence.
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad: Paul's season had several impressive acting moments, including Jesse's side dealings with his rehab group and a shocking season-finale standoff.
Martin Short, Damages: Funny guy Short surprises us with a Machiavellian turn as a corrupt family attorney whose every move stymies Patty's investigation.
John Slattery, Mad Men: The silver fox let us peek beneath his wiseacre surface, where we spied a broken man who has lost his mojo.

Dark Horse: Walton Goggins, Justified: White supremacist Boyd Crowder was meant to be a fleeting character on the series, but Goggins and Timothy Olyphant's adversarial chemistry kept him around.

Best Actress

Glenn Close, Damages: Patty squared off with people even less unscrupulous than her: the Tobin family. The result was explosive.
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters: Her lovably grating attempts to control her children's lives is so familiar we wince.
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU: When Benson was framed for the murder of a biker, Hargitay brought her steely demeanor to bear on a unusual defensive posture.
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace: Grace Hanadarko exited this mortal coil having finally answered the series' central question: Is she ready to give her life to God?
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife: Once the sizzle of the sex scandal subsided, we were left with a feisty legal drama with Margulies' publicity-shy heroine at its core.
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer: Sedgwick went toe to toe with guest star Mary McDonnell and proved why Brenda Leigh solves her cases.

Dark Horse: Katey Sagal, Sons of Anarchy: Sagal found new power in the role of Gemma, who goes from sexual assault victim to murderer in a few short episodes. By the end of the season, she's on the lam.

Jimmy Fallon to host Primetime Emmys

Best Actor

Simon Baker, The Mentalist: Baker's solid season ended with a flirtation with fellow psychic Kristina Frye and an ominous run-in with Jane's big white whale, the Red John killer.
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad: The two-time defending champion erased any sense of sympathy for meth-maker Walt, as he betrayed both his wife and his partner.
Michael C. Hall, Dexter: Finding a murderous twin in Trinity, Dexter located a new emotion: admiration, which quickly bled into rage and sorrow when his idol turned into his tormentor.
Jon Hamm, Mad Men: In a season of reckoning, Don Draper revealed his painful secret, split from his wife, lost a mentor and his job. Hamm handled it all coolly.
Hugh Laurie, House: In a season bookended by exemplary episodes, Dr. House descended into addiction again, only emerging with the love of a good woman.
Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Jack Bauer's long nightmarish day ends as it began, with the lone wolf on a mission to prove he knows what others don't.

Dark Horse: Timothy Olyphant, Justified: Author Elmore Leonard approves of Olyphant's quiet characterization of his U.S. marshal — who are we to argue?