HBO’s Game of Thrones is back in Emmy-winning form heading into Monday’s 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on NBC.

The fantasy-drama series — ineligible for the Emmys last year because its eighth-season start missed 2017 eligibility deadlines — tied with NBC’s Saturday Night Live for the most Emmy wins with seven after the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies on Sept. 8 and 9.

Game of Thrones’s 12 Emmy wins in 2016 — including best drama series — help the show set a record for the most Emmy wins for a fictional series, with 38.

To return to its Emmys summit, Game of Thrones will have to conquer last year’s Outstanding Drama Series champion, Hulu’s freshman series The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as HBO sister drama series Westworld; Netflix’s Stranger Things and The Crown; FX’s The Americans; and NBC’s This Is Us.

Thus far, HBO leads the Emmy sweepstakes with 17, one ahead of Netflix and two more than NBC headed into the telecast. Netflix shocked the industry by generating 104 Emmy nods, knocking HBO from the top spot it held for more than a decade.

One show HBO cannot count on to build its Emmy wins is comedy series Veep, ineligible this year, officially ending its three-peat in the Outstanding Comedy Series category.

The premium network has fielded three nominated shows to hopefully fill Veep’s shoes — Barry, Silicon Valley and Curb Your Enthusiasm — but the show that arguably has the most momentum heading into the Emmys is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the Golden Globe-winning period comedy from Amazon’s Prime Video.

Open Field for Funny Women

Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s record streak of six straight Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy wins will also end, leaving the category wide open for other actresses such as Pamela Adlon (FX’s Better Things), Tracee Ellis Ross (ABC’s Black-ish), Lily Tomlin (Netflix’s Grace and Frankie), Issa Rae (HBO’s Insecure), Allison Janney (CBS’s Mom) and Rachel Brosnahan (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).

Ross and Rae in particular are part of a record number of actors of color vying for the coveted statuette. The performance of such stars during the Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies bodes well for the potential for big wins in major categories on Monday night.

Among the biggest headlines coming out of the Creative Arts Emmys was the sweep by African-American performers in the guest acting categories: This Is Us’s Ron Cephas Jones (guest actor, drama series); The Handmaid’s Tale’s Samira Wiley (guest actress, drama series); Atlanta’s Katt Williams (guest actor, comedy series) and Saturday Night Live’s Tiffany Haddish (guest actress, comedy series) — as well as John Legend’s historic Emmy win for co-producing Fox’s variety special Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, making him the first African-American man to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a Tony award (the coveted EGOT).

Atlanta’s Donald Glover and This Is Us’s Sterling K. Brown will look to repeat with Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in the comedy and drama categories, respectively, and Sandra Oh could become the first woman of Asian descent to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Sunday’s 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Fox is shaping up to be a potentially history-making event as TV celebrates the best performances over the past year in a number of major categories.

Here are three must-see storylines that should make the live telecast must-see viewing for TV lovers:

--Newbies vs. old school: Both the best drama and best comedy categories will pit new shows – mostly from OTT services like Amazon and Netflix – against multi-nominated and past Emmy winners. On the comedy side, first-time nominees Transparent (Amazon) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) will look to stop ABC’s juggernaut Modern Family, which is going for a record sixth straight win in the category. The drama category is also intriguing in that Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black – nominated last year in the Best Comedy category but, because of recent Emmy rules changes, now categorized as a drama -- and freshman series Better Call Saul will sink or swim in a very competitive category that includes this year’s sentimental favorite, AMC’s Mad Men, in its last year of Emmy eligibility.

--The diversity factor: This year’s Emmy nominations are among the most diverse ever, with actors of color represented in many of the major individual performance categories. All eyes will be on the best actress in a drama award as Viola Davis (ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder) and Taraji P. Henson (Fox’s Empire) will vie to become the first African-American actresses ever to win in the category. Also of note is the supporting actor/comedy series category, where first-time nominee Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele) and Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) are all in the running, and the supporting actress/miniseries or movie category, where Regina King (ABC’s American Crime), Angela Bassett (FX’s American Horror Story: Freak Show) ad Mo’Nique (HBO’s Bessie) are nominated.

--Expect the unexpected: With the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ decision earlier this year to make several rule changes expanding the number of  shows nominated in certain categories -- as well as the increase in the number of Academy members eligible to vote for Emmy winners -- all bets are off in terms trying to successfully predict any and all Emmy Award outcomes. That should make TV’s biggest night a fascinating, and hopefully memorable, affair.