Emmy Contenders: Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Possible Contenders
Julia Stiles "Dexter"
Joan Cusack "Shameless"
Shohreh Aghdashloo "Law & Order: SVU"
Christine Lahti "Law & Order: SVU"
Debra Messing "Law & Order: SVU"
Jennifer Love Hewitt "Law & Order: SVU"
Marcia Gay Harden "Law & Order: SVU"
Joan Cusack "Law & Order: SVU"
Cara Buono "Mad Men"
Randee Heller "Mad Men"
Jessica Pare "Mad Men"
American Ferrera "The Good Wife"
Anika Noni Rose "The Good Wife"
Sarah Silverman "The Good Wife"
Jane Alexander "The Good Wife"
Martha Plimpton "The Good Wife"
Rita Wilson "The Good Wife"
Candice Bergen "House"
Sharon Lawrence "Drop Dead Diva"
Cybil Sheperd "Drop Dead Diva"
Rosie O'Donnell "Drop Dead Diva"
Laura San Giacomo "In Plain Sight"
Lesley Ann Warren "In Plain Sight"
Mary McDonnell "The Closer"
Gretchen Mol "Boardwalk Empire"
Jennifer Esposito "Blue Bloods"
Ellen Burstyn "Big Love"
Penelope Ann Miller "Men of a Certain Age"
Evan Rachel Wood "True Blood"
Alfre Woodard "True Blood"
Diahann Carroll "White Collar"

Commentary

This category has too many people to choose. Here is what I can discern. Ellen Burstyn in Big Love and Julia Stiles in Dexter are definite contenders. SVU has too many contenders to count, but my guess is that Messing, Aghdashloo, Cusack, and Lahti being the top of the bunch. The Good Wife is also stacked with contenders, with Fererra adn Rose probably being the best bets. There are many other loose contenders that could populate the top six. Candice Bergen, Gretchen Mol, Esposito, McDonnell, and others being a possibility. I think this category needs to be looked at more closely later on once we start to weed out some of these performances. There are simply too many at this point to really narrow it down to even ten contenders let alone six.