A funny thing happened this Emmy season in the funny category. A contender that was seen as invincible as “Game of Thrones” in the Drama Series lost a bit of its luster. “Veep” had a satisfactory end to its seventh and final season, but there seems to be significantly more passion for newcomers “Fleabag,” “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (last year’s winner) and even fellow HBO series “Barry.” Perhaps it’s all wishful thinking by a loud contingent of Emmy voters who are in the minority. Maybe social media-friendly Emmy members are giving these contenders more love then how the actual voting will actually turn out. Or maybe it’s the fact programs like “Fleabag” and “Barry” had surprise nominations not even their networks thought were possible. Momentum is a crazy thing though and “Fleabag” feels like it has just enough to get over the “Veep” hump. We’ll never know the vote totals, but it’s definitely is gonna be closer than anyone thought it would be six months ago. [Updated August 14]
Frontrunners
1. “Fleabag”
2. “Veep”
3. “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
4. “Barry”
5. “The Good Place”
6. “Russian Doll”
7. “Schitt’s Creek”
strong>2019 Emmy Prediction Pages
Drama Series
Comedy Series
Limited Series
Reality-Competition Series
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie
Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
