As those jawdropping Emmy nominations just proved, the sample episodes submitted by contenders are key to victory. Underdogs pulled off upsets by giving doozies to the judging panels, which recently picked the noms from batches of finalists. Frankly, the reason that "House M.D." nabbed a bid for best drama series was because producers shrewdly submitted "Autopsy," a superbly written and acted episode about an adorable girl's bout with a life-threatening blood clot and fatal cancer. Stack that up against what "Lost" submitted — "Man of Science, Man of Faith," full of weird, never-explained stuff going on in a jungle and down a hatch at night — and it's easy to see how one series won a spot in the lineup and the other, literally, lost.

Here at The Envelope, we'll report on these sample episodes as we watch them carefully, duplicating the voting process in the top categories in an effort to predict who'll win. While all nomination finalists submitted one episode to panels that watched them at the TV academy's offices last weekend, the procedure is different to pick winners. About 5,000 academy members will view the episodes at home where they'll sign an affidavit attesting that they viewed everything in a maximum of four categories. They're limited to voting in just a few races because academy chiefs want to make sure voters aren't overloaded and thus tempted to skip their viewing responsibility. Contenders for best lead actor submit one sample episode. Supporting stars submit 2. Series submit 6, which are split into pairs and distributed randomly.

Soon we'll receive DVD copies of the episodes from the TV academy at the same time voters do and we'll tell you what the judges see — and maybe even what they're thinking. Meantime, we'll compile info about the episode titles, updating it constantly as we learn more and more.

So far, here's what we've discovered — CLICK HERE!

Photo: "I'm not going to kiss you no matter what you say!" asserts medical curmudgeon Hugh Laurie to a lovable, cancer-ridden girl who just survived a blood clot in her brain thanks to his daring surgery. "Autopsy" was "House's" brave submission to the Emmy nominating committee, which is comprised of TV pros who are typical Hollywood cynics who might have pooh-poohed it as a serving of oversweet goo. Now it will be 1 of 6 episodes viewed by TV academy members picking the winner of best drama series. Other nominees: "Grey's Anatomy," "Sopranos," "24" and "West Wing." "
(Fox)