2016 Emmy Predictions: FINAL Winner Predictions for 68th Emmy Awards

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The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards are this weekend and AwardsWatch’s Emmy Experts have their FINAL predictions for this year’s winners.

With the Guest Acting winners at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys being so off the charts we could see as much turned upside down at the big show. The Emmys do often like to repeat themselves and while we all see Game of Thrones and Veep as the Drama Series and Comedy Series winners once again, the acting categories could find some new blood.

Lead Actor in a Drama Series is definitely the case since last year’s winner, Jon Hamm for Mad Men, is no longer on the air. No other nominees have won Emmys for these roles yet (although Kyle Chandler is a previous Emmy in this category) and two are first-time nominees here: Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) and Matthew Rhys (The Americans). Our Emmy Experts predict that one of those two or Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) will prevail here.

Viola Davis should be able to make it two in a row in Lead Actress in a Drama for How to Get Away with Murder. She has a killer tape and is very well respected in the industry. Her history-making win last year (and brilliant speech) should do the trick unless voters go for Keri Russell (The Americans) on her first nomination.

Game of Thrones could grab both Supporting wins here, with Peter Dinklage on his 3rd and Lena Headey, who was the favorite to win last year, the frontrunner once again. But there are most definitely spoilers in the form of Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey, a previous winner and in the show’s final season) and Constance Zimmer (UnREAL).

In comedy, it’s hard to vote against Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) not winning here. She has the best submission and she’s a huge Emmy magnet. Laurie Metcalf (Getting On) could upset but it seems so unlikely. Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent), last year’s winner for Lead Actor in a Comedy, has some formidable competition this year from second-time nominee Anthony Anderson (black-ish, whose show made the Comedy Series cut) and Aziz Ansari, whose Master of None is also nominated for Comedy Series, Directing and Writing. He is the first person of Indian descent to be nominated here and would be the first to win.

The Supporting categories feel overwhelmingly like they will also repeat with Allison Janney (Mom) snagging her 7th win unless Niecy Nash (Getting On) or Judith Light (Transparent) can give her chase. Tony Hale (Veep) submitted an episode (“Inauguration”) that feels a lot like his winning tape last year and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. Although he’s favored to win I can see Louie Anderson (Baskets) being a fantastic upset.

The Limited Series and TV Movie categories should be handily dominated by the nomination champ, The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. It will easily take Limited Series but it should also be able to win both Directing and Writing as well as the three acting categories it’s nominated in. Bryan Cranston (All the Way) could spoil Courtney B. Vance here but the 22 nominations the limited series got are a pretty strong argument for a sweep. Sarah Paulson, who has been nominated for six Emmys in five years, should finally be able to win here. If she can’t win for this, she’ll likely never win. Now watch her lose here but win in Supporting for American Horror Story instead. Sterling K. Brown is up against two other ACS co-stars but he had the most vital role and most screen time, he should come out on top. But if he doesn’t we’re looking at Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager) to finally win an Emmy or possibly Bokeem Woodbine in Fargo.

For reference, here is the breakdown of presenters and categories for this Sunday night.

Here are the FINAL winner predictions for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards from the Emmy Experts (click on the image to enlarge):