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In the TV racket, speculation is rampant. Rampant, I tell you. Is it possible, the speculation goes, that The Handmaid’s Tale could win an Emmy again for outstanding drama series? As a paid-up member of the Television Critics Association I will says this: Yes, it’s entirely possible.

The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards (Monday, NBC, CTV, 8 p.m.) will honour the best in U.S. prime-time television programming that aired or streamed from June 1, 2017, until May 31, 2018, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. It’s a big night in TV but not always a huge ratings hit. With that in mind, the show is getting a promised reboot. A fun-filled reboot, actually. Lorne Michaels, who runs Saturday Night Live, is producing the broadcast and SNL’s Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che are the hosts.

This might mean an extra-large dollop of Trump-related drollery, or it might mean the kind of stoner-tomfoolery that falls flat in an awards-show setting. We await the results. (By the way, red carpet coverage starts at 6 p.m. on the E! Canada channel.) At least the Academy, unlike the Academy that governs the Oscars, didn’t make an attempted, ill-advised leap into honouring, you know, things that are merely popular. If the now-nullified reach for the popular had been applied to the Emmys, it would mean pandering to Roseanne, Sunday Night Football and NCIS. Phew.

The Emmys' big challenge is figuring out how to recognize the explosive growth in content in recent years. The impact, right now, is multiple ultracompetitive categories. Note this: Netflix has 37 nominations, HBO has 29, FX has 25, NBC has 19 (mainly for This is Us, and late-night shows) and Hulu has 12. That is a lot of content across many platforms.

Traditionally, the prestige award is outstanding drama series. The nominees are The Americans (FX), The Crown (Netflix), Game of Thrones (HBO), The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), Stranger Things (Netflix), This Is Us (NBC) and Westworld (HBO). Sizing up the list, it’s possible to speculate with some exactitude on the likely winner. Game of Thrones was absent last year, leaving room for The Handmaid’s Tale. But Handmaid’s Tale also benefited from its uncanny connection to the fraught political climate. The second season, even more unsettling than the first, might be favoured because the #MeToo movement has had a huge impact since last year’s Emmys. Stranger Things, like Westworld, was more tangled in its second season, which might put off some voters.

A perfectly possible outcome, mind you, is honouring The Americans for its run of six seasons and a final season that was remarkably strong. The same logic – of honouring previously unsung excellence, might apply in the category of outstanding lead actor in a drama. Matthew Rhys deserves it for multiple seasons of The Americans. His main competition is Milo Ventimiglia for This Is Us and, as his character Jack died and thereby shifted the series narrative, he could get some acknowledgement. You never know in Hollywood – the character died a terrible death, so let us honour that.

Increasingly, in recent years the category of outstanding limited series is its own field of glory. This year the nominees are The Alienist (TNT, seen here on Netflix), The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX), Genius: Picasso (National Geographic), Godless (Netflix) and Patrick Melrose (Showtime). The Alienist has been over-praised and Genius: Picasso too. That means a tough battle between three truly superb series. The Versace drama might be the favourite but the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring Patrick Melrose is an equally strong and deserving candidate.

The category of outstanding lead actress in a drama series presents another puzzle. It’s Claire Foy for The Crown, Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black, Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid’s Tale, Sandra Oh for Killing Eve, Keri Russell for The Americans and Evan Rachel Wood for Westworld. What Moss did was even more challenging than last year’s work; Russell was formidable in the final season of The Americans and Sandra Oh has got to be a favourite, being the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for an Emmy in the lead-drama category. Acknowledgement of diversity issues on mainstream TV is a vital issue right now.

The matter of Sandra Oh brings inevitably to the issue of snubs in the Emmy nominations. Jodie Comer is simply astonishing as Villanelle in Killing Eve, but wasn’t nominated. Other odd absences are mainly women, also – Alison Brie isn’t recognized for Netflix’s GLOW and neither is Yvonne Strahovski for her increasingly complex role as Serena on The Handmaid’s Tale.

Finally, what in the name of all that’s Emmy does Late Night with Seth Meyers have to do to get a nomination? The show is fiercely inventive and Myers himself is the true possessor of the role Jon Stewart once played on late-night TV. Speculation is rampant. Well, not really. There’s a lot of TV. That’s what makes the Emmy Awards more fun than ever. Enjoy. No wagering, please.

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