If Netflix’s House of Cards or Amazon’s Transparent nabs the best drama or best comedy trophy, respectively, the TV business as we once knew it officially will be over (finally).
But there are other significant races in the works, whose winners also would signal giant shifts for the small screen. Here are 10 other possible outcomes to watch for on Sunday when the 67th annual Primetime Emmy Awards are given out in Los Angeles.
Category: Drama Series
Potential History-Maker: AMC’s Better Call Saul
Why: The series would be the first dramatic spinoff of another Emmy-winning series (Breaking Bad) to take home gold.
Category: Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Potential History-Maker: Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk
Why: Odenkirk would become the first actor to win for playing a character that originated in another series.
Category: Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Potential History-Maker: Mad Men’s Jon Hamm
Why: Hamm would be the first actor to win for the first time after more than five seasons on a series — seven, to be exact. The closest another actor came to this milestone was when Kyle Chandler (now contending for Netflix’s Bloodline) won for his final season of Friday Night Lights in 2011.
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Category: Variety Sketch Series
Potential History-Maker: All of the category’s nominees: IFC’s Portlandia; Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer and Drunk History; and NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Why: No sketch series ever has contended exclusively against other such shows until this year, when the academy split the variety category into two: talk show and sketch series.
Category: Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Potential History-Maker: Transparent’s Jeffrey Tambor
Why: Tambor would be the first actor — male or female — to win for playing a character who is transgender.
Category: Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Potential History-Makers: How to Get Away With Murder’s Viola Davis and Empire’s Taraji P. Henson
Why: No black female actor ever has won in this category.
Category: Lead Actor in a Limited Series or TV movie
Potential History-Maker: Derek’s Ricky Gervais
Why: Gervais would become the first actor to win here for a comedic film role, this one in a spinoff of his Netflix comedy series, Derek.
Category: Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Potential History-Maker: Inside Amy Schumer’s Amy Schumer
Why: No sketch-series performer ever has won a top Emmy acting prize.
Category: Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Potential History-Maker: Parks and Recreation’s Amy Poehler
Why: She would be the first lead female actor to win for the first time for the final season of her comedy series.
Category: Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Potential History-Maker: Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon
Why: She would become the first SNL castmember to win a nonguest-star acting Emmy.
