Remember, we don't want to know who you want to win, but who you predict will prevail! Show us what a brilliant kudos forecaster you are! That's a dare!

Drama - actress

Somehow I've managed to coax six suckers brilliant kudos seers to join me in predicting the Emmy nominations that will be announced this Thursday morning: Michael Ausiello (EW.com), Matt Webb Mitovich (TVGuide.com), Marc Berman (MediaWeek), Ray Richmond (Hollywood Reporter) and our two resident Emmy gurus — our forums moderators Robert "Rob L" Licuria (AwardsHeaven.net) and Chris "Boomer" Beachum. To see how we fared predicting the Emmy top 10 lists, CLICK HERE! Below: how we size up the races for best drama and comedy series. To see our predix for best lead actor and actress, CLICK HERE!

KEEP READING - CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR PREDIX FOR BEST ACTOR AND ACTRESS IN DRAMA AND COMEDY SERIES!

To predict who'll be nominated on July 17 for best lead drama actress, we must first review how Emmy voting works. Accountants combine how contenders performed during a popular vote of the academy's actors (which determined the Top 10 lists) with the scores that judges gave to their sample episode submissions.

Based upon their A-list rank and the strength of the performances they gave in their sample episodes, Holly Hunter ("Saving Grace"), Glenn Close ("Damages") and Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer") will be nominated. However, Hunter and Close may have trouble winning because their characters can be unsympathetic.

It's easy to predict that Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men") will not make the Emmy cut. Being an unknown in a new TV series portraying a role that probably belongs in the supporting category, not lead, suggests that she probably landed in the bottom half of the popular vote. That means she needs a strong episode entry to compensate and she didn't submit it.

But the fates of the other six gals in this category is befuddling. Jeanne Tripplehorn ("Big Love") and Mary McDonnell ("Battlestar Galactica") probably scored low in the popular vote, but their episode entries are fantastic. Will their latter scores be sufficient to pull them up into one of those two remaining open slots, assuming that Hunter, Close and Sedgwick get in?

Just as they handicapped the race for lead actors in a drama series, our forum moderators and special Emmy seers now track the fillies: Chris "Boomer" Beachum and Robert "Rob L" Licuria (AwardsHeaven.net — read Hollywood Reporter's profile of Rob HERE).

Rob and Boomer mirror the actual voting process to rank these women. First, they calculate the order of the top 10 semifinalists as determined by the popular vote by the TV academy's actors' branch. Then they predict how the panel judges scored the sample episode entries. They combine these two results on a 50-50 basis, just like the accountants do, to determine the final ranking of the nominees.

For example, both Boomer and Rob thought Glenn came in first with both the popular vote and the judges so her total score is two. Remember, just like in golf, the lower the score the better the result.

How Rob ranks the popular vote outcome — 1.) Glenn Close 2.) Kyra Sedgwick 3.) Sally Field 4.) Holly Hunter 5.) Minnie Driver 6.) Mariska Hargitay 7.) Patricia Arquette 8.) Jeanne Tripplehorn 9.) Elisabeth Moss 10.) Mary McDonnell

Here's how Boomer thinks the pop vote went down — 1.) Glenn Close 2.) Kyra Sedgwick 3.) Sally Field 4.) Holly Hunter 5.) Mariska Hargitay 6.) Minnie Driver 7.) Patricia Arquette 8.) Elisabeth Moss 9.) Jeanne Tripplehorn 10.) Mary McDonnell

My opinion: I think Rob and Boomer rank Kyra Sedgwick too high.

How Rob thinks the judges ranked episode entries — 1.) Glenn Close 2.) Jeanne Tripplehorn 3.) Mary McDonnell 4.) Kyra Sedgwick 5.) Holly Hunter 6.) Sally Field 7.) Minnie Driver 8.) Mariska Hargitay 9.) Patricia Arquette 10.) Elisabeth Moss

Here's how Boomer ranks the judges' views of the episodes — 1.) Glenn Close 2.) Kyra Sedgwick 3.) Mary McDonnell 4.) Sally Field 5.) Mariska Hargitay 6.) Jeanne Tripplehorn 7.) Elisabeth Moss 8.) Holly Hunter 9.) Patricia Arquette 10.) Minnie Driver

My opinion: Both of our gurus rank Sally Field's episode way too high. Compared to last year, Field hands in a rather lightweight turn now. Certainly, Hargitay's perf is superior and maybe Driver's too. Boomer's wrong and Rob's right about Tripplehorn's eppy — it gets a high rank.

For specific info and excellent analysis of the sample TV episodes, I recommend that you CLICK HERE to read what our post RyanB wrote in our forums. (Well done, Ryan!)

BEST DRAMA ACTRESS: ROB'S PREDIX
(Top five = nominees)
1.) Glenn Close, "Damages" ("Pilot") — 2 points
2.) Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer" ("Manhunt") — 6 points
3.) Sally Field, "Brothers & Sisters" ("History Repeating") — 9 points
3.) Holly Hunter, "Saving Grace" ("Tacos, Tulips, Duck & Spices") — 9 points
5.) Jeanne Tripplehorn, "Big Love" ("Take Me As I Am") — 10 points
6. Minnie Driver, "The Riches" ("Dead Calm") — 12 points
7.) Mary McDonnell, "Battlestar Galactica" ("Faith") — 13 points
8.) Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: SVU" ("Undercover") — 14 points
9.) Patricia Arquette, "Medium" ("Aftertaste") — 16 points
9.) Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men" ("The Hobo Code") — 16 points

KEEP READING - CLICK HERE!

Goodbye, silver screen. Hello, boob tube. The fact that lots of film stars suddenly think it's smart to develop a TV career is dramatically evidenced in the Emmy race for best drama actress. Half of the top 10 vote-getters Emmy are past Oscar nominees, if not winners.

Leading the pack is five-time Academy Award also-ran Glenn Close, who is devilishly good as a barracuda of a barrister on the new series "Damages." Three years ago, Close was a nominee in this category for her one-season stint on "The Shield." Although she lost that race to Patricia Arquette, Close has one Emmy to show for her six nods as lead actress in a miniseries or movie (for 1995's "Serving in Silence"). And now Close, who picked up a Golden Globe in January, is apparently far ahead of Arquette, whose show is flagging even with the addition of Oscar winner Angelica Huston.

While Glenn Close lost all five of her Oscar races, Sally Field won both of her best actress bids ("Norma Rae," 1979, and "Places in the Heart," 1984). Following her start in silly 1960s sitcoms ("Gidget," "The Flying Nun"), Field gained the respect of her TV brethren with an Emmy-winning performance in "Sybil" in 1976. When her movie career stalled in the mid-1990s, Field came back to television, starring in, and exec-producing, the miniseries "A Woman of Independent Means" in 1995.

Although Glenn Close beat her for the Emmy that year, Field would win her second one in 2001 for her guest turn as the bipolar mother of Maura Tierney on "ER." When her first drama series, "The Court," was canceled after only three episodes in 2002, Field felt done with TV and turned her attention to the stage. That is, until the summer of 2006 when the producers of "Brothers & Sisters" came calling, asking her to replace Tony Award winner Betty Buckley as the matriarch of this dysfunctional family. As Nora Walker, Field ruled the roost and feathered her nest with her third Emmy last year, delivering yet another (ahem) memorable acceptance speech, which got bleeped from the U.S. telecast, of course.

Both of those 61-year-old gals clash with 50-year-old Oscar champ Holly Hunter ("The Piano"), who was so kudos-hot in 1993 that she scored an additional bid for supporting actress ("The Firm"). In 2003, she was back in the supporting racetrack for "Thirteen." None of those was her best career performance, though — that was in "Broadcast News" (best actress nomination, 1987), which earned her best-actress laurels from the New York and L.A. film critics in addition to the National Board of Review, all of which rewarded her role in "The Piano" as well. Hunter has scored six Golden Globe noms, including in the TV race last January for "Saving Grace." She won two Emmys in TV movie category: "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom" (1993) and "Roe vs. Wade" (1989).

KEEP READING - CLICK HERE!