The Safe House - Expositions

ATLANTA _ If Academy Awards voters gave out their Oscars based on only five minutes of an actor's work in a movie, they'd basically be doing what Emmy voters do.

That's something you maybe didn't know about the 54th annual Emmy Awards, airing live Sunday night. When TV industry members vote on the best programming of the year, they're not looking at the big picture, so to speak. According to the nomination rules, producers can submit eight episodes of the show they want to be considered for the gold.

In other words, the judges aren't voting on 24 hours of "24," but only a third of the series' nine-month run. Wait, that's not all. Actors win not for their work on the complete season, but on the strength of a single episode that's submitted to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

So maybe that helps you understand why Emmy winners can be such a wonky, weird batch every year. With that in mind, we tried to predict the unpredictable show.

ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES -- Nominees: Amy Brenneman, "Judging Amy," CBS; Frances Conroy, "Six Feet Under," HBO; Jennifer Garner, "Alias," ABC; Rachel Griffiths, "Six Feet Under," HBO; Allison Janney, "The West Wing," NBC.
-- Who should win: Garner, who manages to breathe real emotion into her action-figure heroine, and look amazing in skin-tight rubber miniskirts.
-- Who will win: Griffiths, for bringing truth to "Feet's" most maddeningly complex character.

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