Gold Derby: Emmy acting nominees

ENVELOPE EMMY ACTING SUPPLEMENT – Tom O’Neil (tel. 646-408-3744)

The Emmy is different from the Oscar, Grammy and Tony, which are decided by popular ballot. It’s a juried award. Teams of 50 to 200 actors choose the winner in each performance category after viewing DVDs of sample series episodes or full TV movies and miniseries. When trying to predict the winners, you must know the episodes, which are cited next to programs’ titles on the lists below.

LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA

Kyle Chandler, “Friday Night Lights” (“East of Dillon”)

Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad” (“Full Measure”)

Matthew Fox, “Lost” (“The End”)

Michael C. Hall, “Dexter” (“The Getaway”)

Jon Hamm, “Mad Men” (“The Gypsy and the Hobo”)

Hugh Laurie, “House” (“Broken”)

Spotlight: Two-time winner Cranston faces serious challenges from Hall, who recently won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award, and Chandler, who gives an explosive performance in this episode, fuming at his football team, “If you don’t want to be here, get out of my house!” Having the longest episodes may benefit Fox, who entered the “Lost” finale, and Laurie, who undergoes Vicodin detox in a two-hour “House” special.

LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA

January Jones, “Mad Men” (“The Gypsy and the Hobo”)

Connie Britton, “Friday Night Lights” (“After the Fall”)

Glenn Close, “Damages” (“Your Secrets Are Safe”)

Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order: SVU” (“Perverted”)

Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife” (“Threesome”)

Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer” (“Maternal Instincts”)

Spotlight: Close has won for the last two years, but beware: Margulies is an award darling. She won an Emmy for “ER” (1995) and recently romped at the Golden Globes and SAG for “The Good Wife.” Her Emmy episode submission is strong, featuring a scene of quiet crying when faced with rumors of her husband’s infidelity.

LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY

Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock” (“Don Geiss, America, and Hope”)

Steve Carell, “The Office” (“The Cover Up”)

Larry David, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (“Seinfeld”)

Matthew Morrison, “Glee” (“Mash Up”)

Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory” (“The Pants Alternative”)

Tony Shalhoub, “Monk” (“Mr. Monk and the End, Parts I and II”)

Spotlight: Three-time past champ Shalhoub could get a parting Emmy gift for the final episode of “Monk,” in which he’s poisoned, battles his usual phobias, weeps over memories of his dead wife and finally, after eight TV seasons, solves her murder. Or Emmy voters could get all choked up with nostalgia while viewing the “Seinfeld” reunion on David’s submission.

LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY

Toni Collette, “United States of Tara” (“Tornado!”)

Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie” (“Pilot”)

Tina Fey, “30 Rock” (“Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001”)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (“I Love What You Do for Me”)

Lea Michele, “Glee” (“Sectionals”)

Amy Poehler, “Parks and Recreation” (“Telethon”)

Spotlight: Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in “Funny Girl.” Now Michele croons the same in her Emmy episode. Good omen? Collette won the Emmy last year for portraying multiple personalities but currently battles her Showtime rival Falco, who triumphed three times as the tough Mafia mama on “The Sopranos.”

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA

Andre Braugher, “Men of a Certain Age” (“Powerless”)

Michael Emerson, “Lost” (“Dr. Linus”)

Terry O’Quinn, “Lost” (“The Substitute”)

Aaron Paul, “Breaking Bad” (“Half Measures”)

Martin Short, “Damages” (“You Haven’t Replaced Me Yet”)

John Slattery, “Mad Men” (“The Gypsy and the Hobo”)

Spotlight: One more lingering “Lost” mystery: Why did O’Quinn return to this race? After winning in 2007, he quit the Emmys, declaring on “The View”: “When you win an Emmy for a role, you ought to be ineligible for it again — for a while — maybe for a year or two or maybe not at all — till you get another role.” Maybe his self-imposed time-out expired.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA

Christine Baranski, “The Good Wife” (“Bang”)

Rose Byrne, “Damages” (“Your Secrets Are Safe”)

Sharon Gless, “Burn Notice” (“Devil You Know”)

Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men” (“Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency”)

Elisabeth Moss, “Mad Men” (“Love Among the Ruins”)

Archie Panjabi, “The Good Wife” (“Hi”)

Spotlight: When most actors switch categories, they usually leap up to lead from supporting, but Moss graciously dropped down to supporting after being nominated in lead last year to make way for her costar January Jones. Now the inevitable plot complication: Moss must battle costar Hendricks.

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY

Ty Burrell, “Modern Family” (“Game Changer”)

Chris Colfer, “Glee” (“Laryngitis”)

Jon Cryer, “Two and a Half Men” (“Captain Terry’s Spray-On Hair”)

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, “Modern Family” (“Family Portrait”)

Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother” (“Girls vs. Suits”)

Eric Stonestreet, “Modern Family” (“Fizbo”)

Spotlight: Here’s the ultimate “Family” squabble. The whole cast of “Modern Family” decided that the series is such an ensemble that everybody will compete in supporting. Thus, there’s a traffic jam of costars here, but, hey, where’s Ed O’Neill? He was snubbed years ago for “Married … With Children” too, which was one of the longest-running TV series never to win an Emmy.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY

Julie Bowen, “Modern Family” (“My Funky Valentine”)

Jane Krakowski, “30 Rock” (“Black Light Attack”)

Jane Lynch, “Glee” (“Power of Madonna”)

Holland Taylor, “Two and a Half Men” (“Give Me Your Thumb”)

Sofia Vergara, “Modern Family” (“Not in My House”)

Kristen Wiig, “Saturday Night Live” (host James Franco)

Spotlight: Repeat winners often dominate this category (Doris Roberts won four times, Megan Mullally twice), but this time the coast is clear with no past champs. However, there are several repeat nominees who are overdue: Krakowski, Taylor and Wiig.

LEAD ACTRESS, MINISERIES OR MOVIE

Maggie Smith, “Capturing Mary”

Joan Allen, “Georgia O’Keeffe”

Judi Dench, “Return to Cranford”

Hope Davis, “The Special Relationship”

Claire Danes, “Temple Grandin”

Spotlight: Over the last decade, this category has been won six times by Oscar champs, including Smith, who prevailed in 2003 for portraying an eccentric British novelist in “My House in Umbria.” Smith’s only Oscar rival here is Dench. Front-runner is probably Danes as a real-life woman who triumphed over autism.

LEAD ACTOR, MINISERIES OR MOVIE

Jeff Bridges, “A Dog Year”

Ian McKellen, “The Prisoner”

Michael Sheen, “The Special Relationship”

Dennis Quaid, “The Special Relationship”

Al Pacino, “You Don’t Know Jack”

Spotlight: Seven of the last 10 winners portrayed real people, including Pacino, who triumphed as Roy Cohn in “Angels in America” (2004). Currently, Pacino is nominated as Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian, Sheen as Tony Blair, Quaid as Bill Clinton and Bridges as a writer who matches wits with his crazy border collie.