‘Mad Men’ Expected to Make History at 64th Emmy Awards as Favorite for Outstanding Drama Series

In Los Angeles, the worlds of sports and Hollywood have to find a way to share the spotlight. With the NHL lockout halting the hockey season and the NBA preseason still a few weeks away, the 64th Emmy Awards have sole possesion of the limelight this weekend in L.A.

Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Emmy Awards
is set for Sunday night and the big story line heading into the
show is whether AMC's drama Mad Men can make television history.

Mad Men was nominated for 17 awards overall, the
second straight year the show led all single series in nominations, but the big
one is Outstanding Drama Series. The show, set in the 1960s at a fictional
advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, has won the Best Drama
award the past four years. The only other drama series to win four Emmys were Hill
Street Blues, L.A. Law and The West Wing.

Hill Street Blues won four straight from 1981-84 but
was knocked off in 1985 by Cagney & Lacey. West Wing also took four
straight but its run ended in 2004 by a show called The Sopranos. You may
have heard of it.

Mad Men is the 2-1 favorite on Bovada's entertainment
odds to take home the Emmy on Sunday. The English-import PBS drama Downton
Abbey is the second-favorite at 14-5. Last year, the show was submitted in the
Outstanding Miniseries or Made for Television Movie category, which it won.

None of the four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS,
NBC, Fox) had a drama nominated. It's the first time that has happened. The
others up for Outstanding Drama are AMC's Breaking Bad (29-1 to win), HBO's Boardwalk Empire (17-2) and Game of Thrones (9-1), and Showtime's Homeland (23-4), which just began in October.

Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad is the 7-5 favorite to
win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama. Cranston won the award each year from
2008-10 but was ineligible last year because the show was on a lengthy hiatus — Kyle
Chandler of Friday Night Lights won. Only one actor has won four Emmys for a
drama: Dennis Frantz of NYPD Blue. He won in 1994, '96-97 and '99 from a
total of eight nominations.

Damian Lewis (9-4) of Homeland and Jon Hamm (19-4) of Mad Men round out the Top 3 favorites for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama.

Claire Danes of Homeland is the 6-5 favorite to be
named Outstanding Lead Actress in Drama. She stars as CIA operative Carrie
Mathison in the counter-terrorism unit who is tracking Nicholas Brody  — Lewis —
a man she believes was turned into a traitor against the U.S. while a prisoner
of war under Al-Qaeda. Homeland received more overall Emmy nominations than
any other new show.

The other top favorites for Lead Actress in a Drama are
Julianna Margulies (7-2) from The Good Wife and Michelle Dockery of Downton
Abbey and Kathy Bates of Harry's Law (both 6-1).

On the comedy side, ABC's Modern Family is the
two-time winner of Outstanding Comedy Series and the 5-4 favorite to threepeat.
The record for most Emmys for Outstanding Comedy is former NBC show Frasier
with five.

NBC's 30 Rock won three straight Emmys in the
category before Modern Family, but it is the 8-1 long shot this year. The
other favorites are CBS' Big Bang Theory (4-1) and two first-year HBO shows: Girls and Veep (11-2). A cable show hasn't won Outstanding Comedy since
HBO's Sex and the City in 2001.

The favorite for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy is
Louis C.K. of FX's Louie. The series is based on the fictionalized hectic
life of Louis C.K. as a stand-up comedian and newly single father
raising his two daughters in New York City. Louis C.K. isn't just the star but also
the executive producer, writer and director.

Jim Parsons of CBS' "Big Bang Theory" has won this
award the past two years and is the 12-5 second-favorite, followed by Don
Cheadle (9-2) of Showtime's House of Lies.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep is the 2-1 favorite to
win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy. Louis-Dreyfus plays sometimes foul-mouthed
and often befuddled U.S. vice president Selina Meyer in the political satire.
Louis-Dreyfus is best known from Seinfeld, but her lone Outstanding Lead
Actress in a Comedy Emmy win came in 2006 for The New Adventures of Old
Christine.

Melissa McCarthy of CBS' Mike and Molly won last
year's Emmy in this category but is a 17-2 long shot in 2012. The other top
favorites are Amy Poehler (15-4) of NBC's Parks and Recreation and Zooey
Deschanel (17-4) of Fox's New Girl. No actress from a Fox show has won in a
comedy series.