And the Emmy for comedy series goes to ...

While I remain firmly convinced that you don’t win friends with salad, I am willing to give my colleague Lucas Kwan Peterson the benefit of the doubt and explore a few of the greens-centric places he ranked on his latest list for The Times’ Food section. Provided, of course, that I don’t have to eat beets. You have to draw the line somewhere.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and the guy who’s still waiting for the sun. It’s coming this weekend, right? Every weather service has promised!

Emmy comedy power rankings

Emmy voters are creatures of habit. That’s good news for “Ted Lasso” in its quest to win a third consecutive comedy series trophy and keep its perfect record intact.

You’d figure that fans of the show would be sentimental enough to send the series off — if it is indeed leaving the air — with a warm, teary embrace. But “Ted Lasso” faces a formidable challenge this year from “Abbott Elementary.” The ABC sitcom earned seven nominations for its 13-episode debut season, winning three, including writing honors for creator Quinta Brunson and supporting actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. “Abbott” was even better in its full second season, demonstrating that it is indeed possible to tell funny, heartwarming stories in a tight 22 minutes.

And, as you’ll see here in my Emmy comedy power rankings, “Abbott” and “Ted Lasso” are far from the only shows in play. (You do remember “The Bear,” don’t you?) Who might be smiling when nominations are announced next month? Have a look!

“Abbott Elementary” creator Quinta Brunson, left, co-stars in the ABC sitcom with Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter and Sheryl Lee Ralph.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Emmy contenders lay out their skills

Riley Keough just learned to sing about a week before she auditioned for the Prime Video limited series “Daisy Jones & the Six”? Wait ... what? She is The King’s granddaughter, so you’d think the learning curve wouldn’t be that steep, that she’d have a feeling in her body and such, but that revelation just left me all shook up (OK, I’ll stop ... promise) when I read it in Times television critic Lorraine Ali’s roundtable conversation with six of this year’s Emmy contenders from limited series.

Lorraine spoke with Keough, Murray Bartlett (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Emily Blunt (“The English”), Kathryn Hahn (“Tiny Beautiful Things”), Paul Walter Hauser (“Black Bird”) and Niecy Nash-Betts (“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”). In addition to learning how to sing for “Daisy Jones,” Keough revealed that she once had to paint cockroaches with nail polish for a project — though, really, who hasn’t done that at least once around 2 a.m. sometime in their youth? It’s a rite of passage. No? Really? Just me and Riley? Well, at least we’ll have something to talk about should we ever meet.

Kathryn Hahn, left, Emily Blunt, Murray Bartlett, Niecy Nash-Betts, Paul Walter Hauser and Riley Keough got together for The Envelope’s limited series roundtable.

(Alex Harper / For The Times)

Cherry Jones is everywhere. Lucky us!

She played Nan Pierce, the media mogul with “peasant taste,” on “Succession.” (“Oh, this bidding war is sooooo disgusting.”) She killed it (and others) as a film exec harboring a secret in one of the best episodes of “Poker Face.” And she broke us as a compassionate nursing director in “Five Days at Memorial.” So, yes, Cherry Jones was a huge part of our television viewing experience the past few months, and, good God, what a blessing.

My pal Margy Rochlin spoke with Jones about all her hard work and also — because this is Margy asking the questions — what Jones would bring to a potluck.

“My wife sent me the recipe for this beans, tomatoes and onion salad,” Jones replied. “It was really good. Everyone would always ask, ‘Are you going to bring the bean salad?’ They were very sweet. [laughs] I think sometimes they were just humoring me.”

Uuuuuummmm ... recipe, please??

Cherry Jones in “Five Days at Memorial.”

(Apple TV+)