Los Angeles - Stylish period drama Mad Men and network comedy 30 Rock are favourites to scoop top honours at Sunday's 61st Emmy Awards, the US television industry's equivalent to the Oscars.
AMC television hit Mad Men - set in the politically incorrect world of a New York advertising agency in the early 1960s - is tipped to repeat its 2008 triumph by winning the outstanding drama series award.
The critically acclaimed series also has nominations in the top acting categories, with leading man Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss picking up nods for Sunday's 5pm (0000 GMT) awards extravaganza at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Tom O'Neil, an awards season pundit with the Los Angeles Times's theenvelope.com blog, said Mad Men was likely to prove too strong for rival nominees, which include Breaking Bad, Damages and House.
"'Mad Men' definitely has the 'cool quotient' right now," O'Neil said. "It's classy, it's well-written and it has something which is very important - snob appeal, an elitist appeal if you like."
It remains to be seen though whether the popularity of Mad Men will help deliver Emmys for Hamm and Moss in the acting categories.
The favourite for outstanding actor in a drama series is Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston, tipped to triumph once more for his portrayal of a high school chemistry teacher who turns to crime.
But Cranston could be vulnerable to a challenge from Gabriel Byrne, the Irish actor who plays a neurotic psychotherapist in the HBO hit In Treatment.
In the women's acting categories, veteran actress Glenn Close is expected to pick up the third Emmy of her career for her role as the ruthless New York lawyer Patty Hewes in Damages.
Other nominees include Moss for Mad Men, Sally Field for Brothers & Sisters, Mariska Hargitay for Law & Order, Kyra Sedgwick for The Closer and Holly Hunter for Saving Grace.
The comedy awards are expected to see yet another clean sweep for 30 Rock, which scooped a record-breaking 22 nominations across all categories, including nods for the show's two stars, Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey.
The show is the overwhelming favourite to take the outstanding comedy series award for a third year running, while both Baldwin and Fey are expected to repeat their success from the 2008 awards.
Baldwin won the first Emmy of his career last year for his role as a slippery television network executive.
Fey - who shot to international fame during last year's US presidential election for her uncanny impersonations of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin - plays a writer on a fictional television show.
"30 Rock is irresistible to a lot of the voters because it's a show about television - the industry that the Emmys celebrate," O'Neil told AFP.
Elsewhere, HBO's Iraq invasion drama Generation Kill is favoured to win the Emmy for outstanding mini-series, where it faces competition from the BBC's Charles Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit.
Another Iraq-themed production, HBO's Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon, is among the contenders in the made for television movie.
The film stars Bacon as a US military officer tasked with escorting the body of a fallen soldier back to his family.
Bacon is nominated for best actor in a mini-series, along with Brendan Gleeson (Into The Storm), Kenneth Branagh (Wallander: One Step Behind), Kevin Kline (Cyrano de Bergerac), Ian McKellen (King Lear) and Kiefer Sutherland (24: Redemption). - AFP
List of nominees in principal categories at 61st Annual Prime-time Emmy Awards to be held Sunday:
Outstanding drama series
"Big Love"
"Dexter"
"House"
"Damages"
"Mad Men"
"Breaking Bad"
"Lost"
Outstanding lead actor in a drama series
Hugh Laurie "House"
Michael C. Hall "Dexter"
Gabriel Byrne "In Treatment"
Bryan Cranston "Breaking Bad"
Jon Hamm "Don Draper"
Simon Baker "Patrick Jane"
Outstandning lead actress in a drama series
Glenn Close "Damages"
Elisabeth Moss "Mad Men"
Sally Field "Brothers & Sisters"
Mariska Hargitay "Law & Order"
Kyra Sedgwick "The Closer"
Holly Hunter "Saving Grace"
Outstanding comedy series
"Entourage"
"30 Rock"
"Weeds"
"The Office"
"How I Met Your Mother"
"Family Guy"
"Flight of the Conchords"
Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series
Steve Carell "The Office"
Tony Shalhoub "Monk"
Jemaine Clement "Flight Of The Conchords"
Jim Parsons "The Big Bang Theory"
Alec Baldwin "30 Rock"
Charlie Sheen "Two And A Half Men"
Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series
Tina Fey "30 Rock"
Christina Applegate "Samantha Who"
Toni Collette "United States of Tara"
Sarah Silverman "The Sarah Silverman Program"
Mary-Louise Parker "Weeds"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus "The New Adventures of Old Christine"
Outstanding mini-series
"Generation Kill"
"Little Dorrit"
Outstanding made for television movie
"Taking Chance"
"Grey Gardens"
"Into the Storm"
"Prayers for Bobby"
"Coco Chanel"
Outstanding lead actor in a mini-series
Kevin Bacon "Taking Chance"
Brendan Gleeson "Into the Storm"
Kenneth Branagh "Wallander: One Step Behind"
Kevin Kline "Cyrano de Bergerac"
Ian McKellen "King Lear"
Kiefer Sutherland "24: Redemption"
Outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie
Drew Barrymore "Grey Gardens"
Jessica Lange "Grey Gardens"
Sigourney Weaver "Prayers for Bobby"
Shirley MacLaine "Coco Chanel"
Chandra Wilson "Yvonne"