The Emmy Awards are television's equivalent of the Oscars / © AFP/File
Searing teen murder saga "Adolescence" and Hollywood satire "The Studio" are expected to be among the big winners at Sunday's Emmy Awards, television's equivalent of the Oscars.
Meanwhile, Apple TV+'s sci-fi office thriller "Severance" and HBO medical procedural "The Pitt" will vie for the highly coveted best drama series prize.
Pundits say that race is too close to call at the ceremony, which kicks off at 5:00 pm in Los Angeles (0000 GMT Monday).
Arguably this year's most talked-about TV hit, "Adolescence" is the clear favorite to win best limited series -- awarded to shows that end after one season.
Earning a whopping 140 million views in its first three months on Netflix, it follows a 13-year-old schoolboy arrested on suspicion of murdering a female classmate with a knife.
British co-creator, writer, executive producer and actor Stephen Graham (R) and British actor Owen Cooper wowed critics in Netflix's 'Adolescence' -- both earned Emmy nominations / © AFP/File
It is "inconceivable to see a way in which 'Adolescence' loses come Emmy night," wrote Vanity Fair's John Ross.
"Cultural zeitgeist trumps all at the Emmys."
Each of its four episodes are shot in a stunning single take, and together form a timely and tragic examination of the impact of toxic masculinity on young boys.
The show drew rave reviews and countless water-cooler discussions. A limited series win would be the second in a row for dark British Netflix shows, after last year's "Baby Reindeer."
The best comedy series prize has a similarly prohibitive favorite -- Apple's "The Studio."
'The Studio' -- starring its co-creator Seth Rogen as floundering movie exeuctive Matt Remick -- appears to be a lock for best comedy series / © AFP/File
Starring its co-creator Seth Rogen as floundering movie executive Matt Remick, "The Studio" is both a love letter to Hollywood, and a searing send-up of the industry's many insecurities, hypocrisies and moral failings.
Its 23 nominations are the joint-most ever by a comedy in a single year, and it already won nine statuettes last weekend at the ceremony for the more technical Emmy categories.
In a meta twist, a beloved episode of "The Studio" takes place during a Hollywood awards show, with a running gag in which nearly every winner thanks Remick's underling Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz) rather than the boss himself.
Expect plenty of callbacks to that moment on Sunday.
- Dramatic finish? -
The ceremony's most intriguing moment seems destined to be the announcement of the best drama series award -- typically the final prize of the night.
Noah Wyle is tipped to take the best drama actor Emmy for his performance as a hospital emergency room's haunted leader in 'The Pitt' / © AFP/File
"Severance" -- a psychological drama set largely in the near-future offices of a shadowy corporation -- has the most nominations of any show this year with 27.
The premise: the "innie" employees of Lumon Industries quite literally leave their outside lives, memories and personalities at the door, thanks to a dystopian new mind-splitting technology.
Starring Adam Scott, the show's acclaimed first season in 2022 missed out to "Succession" for Emmys glory, but this year's sophomore run was the presumed drama frontrunner.
Then along came "The Pitt," a quietly released medical drama that was originally conceived as an "ER" spinoff, and emulates much of that show's DNA.
All 15 episodes are set consecutively during the same unbearably stressful shift at an inner city Pittsburgh hospital.
Tackling everything from abortion rights to mass shootings, it has become a word-of-mouth sensation.
"ER" veteran Noah Wyle is tipped to pip Scott for the best drama actor prize for his performance as the emergency room's haunted leader.
- 'Celebrating television' -
In these divisive political times, the Television Academy -- which hands out the Emmys -- is determined to steer clear of controversy.
Producers Jeannae Rouzan-Clay (L) and Jesse Collins (R), and host Nate Bargatze (C), are aiming to keep the Emmys on-time and off politics / © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
"We're definitely just celebrating television," ceremony producer Jesse Collins told Deadline on Thursday.
"Nobody's trying to veer off that course. We want everybody to just have fun for three hours."
Host Nate Bargatze has even devised a novel way to keep things succinct.
The comedian has pledged to donate $100,000 of his own money to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The catch? He will deduct $1,000 for every second that a winner's acceptance speech exceeds the allotted 45 seconds.
