For three years, television critics and sci-fi fans have been championing John Noble for his impressively creepy work as a mad scientist on "Fringe," which recently received a fourth-season pick-up from Fox. But why hasn't he even been nominated for TV's highest honor -- Emmy?

The answer may be Emmys' long-standing bias against fantasy fare, but other stars have surmounted that in the past. Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson, for instance, have each recently claimed the same Emmy category of supporting drama actor for "Lost."
Now there are hopeful signs that Noble may be taken more seriously as an Emmy candidate this year.

He's received more than 7,700 votes in a Facebook Emmy campaign and he just won the Critics' Choice Television Award. He claimed that prize Monday, which was roughly two-thirds of the way into the Emmy voting period, which ends on Friday at 5 p.m. PDT.