We’re smack in the middle of Emmy voting, which means the big studios are pulling out all the stops for the biggest, brightest contenders—and you’ve still got a few days left before you stop hearing about the likes of The Bear, Shōgun, and Baby Reindeer (for now, anyway). On this week’s Little Gold Men, though, we get into the intricacies of the nominations ballot and what shows and names we hope rise to the top on July 17’s noms day—even if their climb is a little steeper.

A guide to Hollywood’s biggest races

Listen below, or read on for the Awards Insider team’s personal picks for the underdog shows, with a special focus on actually funny comedy series, and great performances that most deserve an Emmy spotlight this season. Voting closes on Monday, so get watching, Academy members!

Nothing this past television season was as imaginative, wickedly polemical, or bizarrely sweet as this Boots Riley concoction. The Sorry to Bother You director helmed all seven episodes of this Prime Video comedy, and the singular vision shines through in its portrait of a 13-foot-tall, 19-year-old loner deciding to live as his authentic self in contemporary Oakland. Perhaps too weird and sharp for an algorithm, Virgo’s quiet summer premiere shouldn’t prevent it from finding a place in this year’s Emmy conversation. Jharrel Jerome may already have a best-actor Emmy to his name for his heartbreaking work in When They See Us, but he’s equally revelatory as Virgo’s gentle giant. And I defy any voter in the directing branch to fully take in Virgo’s gorgeous, handmade design and deft mélange of tones without checking Riley off on their ballot. —David Canfield

Current sci-fi queen Rebecca Ferguson—the Dune movies’ most formidable space witch—has been doing great stuff in the genre on the small screen too. On Apple TV+’s Silo, Ferguson plays a reluctant sheriff navigating postapocalyptic life in the vertical bunker of the show’s title. She’s a marvel in the role, both tough and vulnerable, lending gravitas to what might otherwise just be a fun Saturday-night serial throwback. Between Silo, Dune, Doctor Sleep, and the Mission: Impossible franchise, Ferguson has shown a beguilingly cool command of genre work, whether she’s solving a silo-based crime or stalking around America as an ageless evil entity. But these sorts of projects typically don’t get awards attention, and thus one of the most exciting actors working today has been left out of those conversations. What better way to honor a thrilling career than to give Ferguson an Emmy nomination for Silo, a popular series she so mesmerizingly anchors and elevates? It would at least satisfy us Fergufans (there has to be a better name) until the Oscars wise up and throw Jessica Atreides some love. —Richard Lawson

With Top Chef and Project Runway, Emmy voters have long acknowledged Bravo’s expertise in the reality-competition space, but it’s taken far longer for the network’s unstructured shows to get recognition. That’s changed in recent years—first with Below Deck, then with last year’s shrewd recognition of Vanderpump Rules during its headline-making Scandoval era. But as Vanderpump faltered in its 11th season, a new standout rose with RHOSLC. An already strong season, which began with fallout from former cast member Jen Shah’s federal fraud conviction, ended in astounding fashion. Those searching for receipts, proof, and timelines that support a first-time RHOSLC nod need look only to the fourth season’s final 10 minutes, in which new housewife Monica Garcia is exposed as one of the figures behind Reality Von Tease—an Instagram account devoted to spreading gossip about her costars. Most scripted dramas wish they had that kind of twist ending. —Savannah Walsh

After two brilliant but underwatched seasons on Peacock, Meredith Scardino’s 10-jokes-a-minute comedy about members of a washed-up, aughts-era girl group trying to fight their way back into the zeitgeist got a big break of its own. For season three, the show would move to Netflix, where Girls5eva executive producers Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt had thrived for four seasons and a movie. The show’s third installment premiered on the platform in March, to a decent amount of fanfare and media coverage, and then…not much happened. Girls5eva failed to catapult to the top of Netflix’s most-watched list; a fourth season now seems a distant dream. Which is, of course, a travesty, because Scardino’s comedy is the funniest thing currently streaming: a feast of silliness and keenly pointed references boosted by Emmy-worthy performances from Sara Bareilles, Paula Pell, Busy Philipps, and especially Hamilton alum Renée Elise Goldsberry. Maybe we’d get more time with the Girls if the TV Academy gave them some well-deserved love. —Hillary Busis

Zahn McClarnon is one of those actors who sells with a stare what most actors need a whole monologue to do. Anyone who’s seen the veteran actor’s work in such Emmy-winning juggernauts as Fargo and Westworld can attest to that power. But in those shows—not to mention most of his dozens of other screen credits—McClarnon was a small cog in a big machine. That changed with Dark Winds, AMC’s gripping drama set in Navajo County that is many great things, but chief among them a vehicle for McClarnon to prove what he can do at the top of the call sheet. The result, particularly in a superlative second season entwining rich character drama with a compelling central mystery, is an undeniable star-making performance that spins classic cop archetypes on their head. In a rather dry drama field this year, there ought to be room for McClarnon’s mesmerizing, overdue showcase. —D.C.

The most outlandish moments from The Morning Show—think that rocket launch, or Bradley Jackson’s infiltration of the January 6 insurrection—tend to circulate on social media. But in the Apple TV+ drama’s latest season, clips from Nicole Beharie’s standout performance as new morning-show anchor Chris Hunter trended for an entirely different reason. Viola Davis was among the many who praised Beharie’s work in the season’s third episode, during which Chris confronts a racist coworker—her network’s president, no less—live on the air. It is a restrained but steely portrayal, one typical of the arresting work Beharie has been doing for decades in films like Miss Juneteenth and Shame, as well as series such as Little Fires Everywhere and Black Mirror. Her first Emmy nomination is long overdue, particularly for delivering such grounded work in an increasingly chaotic series. —S.W.

Mike Flanagan makes it hard to take Carla Gugino for granted. While she’s been a versatile utility player across movies and TV for decades, Gugino has tended to fly under the radar, anchoring underseen gems (Karen Sisco) and holding her own against legends like Sigourney Weaver (Political Animals). In Flanagan’s string of Netflix horror successes, however, the Florida native has grabbed thrilling hold of the spotlight—beginning with her sublime work in The Haunting of Hill House. But her performance as Verna in The Fall of the House of Usher rather starkly illustrates how overdue this actor is for some awards recognition. Portraying a shapeshifting mastermind inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven, she’s an unleashed delight, never more so than when she’s asked to exactingly approximate the physicality of a chimp. Yes, Gugino can play subtle with the best of them, but come on—that alone should put her over the top. —D.C.

With this race essentially whittled down to a battle between The Bear and Hacks, Emmy voters would be wise to populate the remainder of the best-comedy-series category with some unexpected picks. Enter Max’s gone, but never forgotten (for me, anyways) series starring Sarah Lancashire as a fictionalized version of famed chef Julia Child. Across its easily digestible two seasons, the show consistently made globe-trotting, decade-spanning story arcs look easy to execute. That was thanks, in part, to a deep bench of ensemble talent (long live Bebe Neuwirth’s Avis DeVoto), and writing that could turn even the most complicated of societal matters into something that felt cozy. Allow Julia to join the likes of Lovecraft Country and Pushing Daisies as canceled shows given a bittersweet send-off with nominations from the TV Academy. —S.W.