Khandi Alexander, "Treme"

Nomination Status: If "should" were the same as "will," then Alexander would make the field. It isn't.

In Her Favor: Have you actually watched "Treme"? Alexander's character had one of the show's most heartbreaking arcs, searching for her missing brother through the bureaucratic morass of post-Katrina New Orleans. Like John Goodman on the supporting actor side, Alexander has the advantage of being a known quantity and we'd kinda made the assumption that she was a previous Emmy nominee for her work on "The Corner."

Working Against Her: We were wrong. As was mentioned in the Goodman post, Emmy voters haven't nominated a single actor from Simon's "The Wire," "The Corner" or "Generation Kill." That's a lot of history to overcome, especially since episodes of "Treme" will have to get past similar hurdles with uninitiated Emmy voters.