Martha Plimpton, "Raising Hope"

Nomination Status: Respected veteran is a definitely contender.

In Her Favor: Plimpton comes from an acting family and has been doing TV, movies and plays since she was a kid, but she only has one career Emmy nomination. With "Raising Hope" she's taken a traditional wacky sitcom mom and after a couple all-too-obvious quirks were smoothed out after the pilot, made her into a funny and unique character. And, like Garret Dillahunt, who deserves to be in the race for Supporting Actor, Plimpton has delivered this strong performance acting opposite a baby and Cloris Leachman.

Working Against Her: "Raising Hope" has fans, but it isn't a hit. And although submitting as Lead wasn't a bad idea -- Supporting is packed, Lead is not -- Plimpton's role isn't meaty enough to let her compete with the Showtime women.