NOMINATED FOR Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama

WHY EMMY GOT HIP TO HIM Though his character rode slippery, soap-opera-like story lines this season (poor Nate Fisher even has a life-threatening brain disease!), Krause never lost his grasp on the overwhelmed undertaker. Instead of taking the lip-trembling, blinking-back-tears route in reaction to his character's latest woes -- nasty screamfests with fiancée Brenda, bleak prognoses, and unexpected fatherhood -- Krause became more Nate than ever: a bemused Everyman yearning to be let in on the punchline of life's cruel jokes.