This week, we’ve got a full hour on the 2016 Emmy Awards, and we’re pretty thrilled to be speaking about all the television we love so much. The ceremony will be broadcast on September 18, 2016 on ABC, and we are excited to see who takes home the big prizes (and many of the small prizes as well). If you want to hear more of our preliminary thoughts on the nominations (we did a segment on them back in our Ghostbusters episode) check that out here. In the first half of this episode, we talk a little about the function of the Emmys, especially in the glorious age of Peak TV that we are happy to be living in. We talk about the curious case of the Lauren Graham Rule and what it did (and didn’t do) for underdog nominees. Both Jeff and I have reservations about Jimmy Kimmel as this year’s host, and fingers are crossed that he will bring a different style of humour than that evidenced on either The Man Show, or Win Ben Stein’s Money, our super-current reference points for his work.

In the second half of our Emmy Awards podcast, we turn to a deep dive on this year’s nominees. The Limited Series nominations are usually things we haven’t seen, but that feature big time actors who are often in talks for an Oscar award as well. I dove into The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story particularly because of overwhelming buzz around Sarah Paulson’s performance as Marcia Clark (she doesn’t disappoint, though the series does). We have thoughts on Variety Talk Series, as you might expect. Jeff and I almost came to blows over the supporting actor in a comedy category—I’m in the tank for the glorious deadpan of Andre Braugher on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Jeff is firmly on team Tituss Burgess. Are we still friends? Tune in to the next episode to find out. Looking at the women nominated for acting, I’m still rooting for a Julia Louis-Dreyfus upset, even though I adore her performance this year. We wonder if Kate McKinnon will win the Emmy Award for Ghostbusters, the way Melissa McCarthy won for her work in Bridesmaids.

We talk a little about the drama categories, and we learn that we don’t care about most of the work dudes are doing on television. If you are interested in what dudes are up to, please see all of culture, it has your answers. For lead actor, drama, lady category, the battle royale is on between the GREAT Tatiana Maslany and the TOTALLY BADASS Robin Wright. We are team Maslany (because COME ON), but concede that the talented Ms. Wright may take home the trophy.

Outside of those major nominations, Jeff and I discuss some of the smaller awards. Many of these have now been awarded at the Creative Arts Emmy Ceremony which took place last weekend.