The Favorite for Best Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy Is Ricky Gervais

Three times Ricky Gervais has stunned the Emmy audience and his fellow nominees by seemingly stealing their awards (not literally).

Last year, it seemed that the Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy Series was between The Office's Steve Carell and 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin. But, out of nowhere (Gervais wasn't even at the awards show), the star of the BBC's Extras won the award.

This was a similar formula to Gervais's shocking win in 2004 for the British (and original) version of The Office. He won Best Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Comedy Series.

This year, it seems that Gervais is now the frontrunner for the award, given the American writers' strike that forced writers to speed up their process, combined with the absolute strength of the finale of Extras, that doesn't just end like many American shows (that's all I'll give away).

If you've never seen Extras before, it's definitely worth checking out. It doesn't require a great deal of time invested (there were only two seasons of the show), and it is extremely funny.

The premise of the show is that Gervais plays an extra on various movie sets, which typically involve one big-time star in the show. Gervais and his fellow extras interact with the stars (which include Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Coldplay's Chris Martin, and possibly Robert De Niro in the finale), and it truly lives up to its billing as one of the funniest shows around.

But as is the case with most of these things, there are a lot of factors that go into voting. So tune in to Fox when the Emmys air in late September to root on your favorite actors and shows and to see if Gervais does as well in the favorite role as he did as an underdog.