No host, lots of swag, and--just maybe--one very grateful Monk.

That's the way things are adding up as the 55th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards prepare to go down Sunday at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium.

E!'s live, countdown coverage of the big night is scheduled to begin Sunday at noon (ET/PT), with Joan Rivers and Melissa Rivers' red-carpet report beginning at 6 p.m. (ET/PT). Fox's three-hour telecast of the shiny-gold statuette processional is scheduled to commence at 8 p.m. (ET/PT)

HBO's Six Feet Under goes into the show as the stiffest competitor. The undertaking drama tops all comers with 16 nominations, including one for best drama series. NBC's Will & Grace goes into Sunday on the biggest winning streak. The sitcom took three awards, including a guest actor trophy for Gene Wilder, at the Creative Arts Emmys, held last Saturday at the Shrine.

Who'll get the gold, not to mention the luxury, pressure-relieving mattresses, on Sunday? Stay tuned:

The (No) Host:

Producers and Fox have opted to ditch the single-, or even dual-host format in favor of funny people--lots of them. Past emcees Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres and Garry Shandling are scheduled to do bits, along with the likes of Brad Garrett, Saturday Night Live alum Darrell Hammond, George Lopez, Bernie Mac, Dennis Miller, Martin Short, Jon Stewart, and Wanda Sykes. In a bit of heartening network outreach, only Bernie Mac and Sykes are Fox prime-time employees.

Exec producer Don Mischer promises to let the comedians loose as roving reporters, presenters and, of course, comic relief.

Sunday's broadcast will mark the first time the show has gone stag in the host department since the 1998 awards on NBC.

The Presenters:

Nominees Jennifer Garner (Alias), along with costar and fellow nominee Victor Garber, Debra Messing (Will & Grace), ditto re: Eric McCormack, and James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), ditto re: Edie Falco, are among those scheduled to help hand out the hardware.

Others giving up their Sunday evenings include: Survivor's Jeff Probst, Alicia Silverstone, soon of NBC's Miss Match, and CSI's Marg Helgenberger, herself a nominee, and William Petersen, himself a snubee.

HBO, by the way, the leading exporter of East Coast stars to the Shrine, said Thursday it didn't anticipate the high winds and heavy rain of Hurricane Isabel, currently battering the right-hand side of the nation, to hinder the travel plans of its presenters and nominees. Most were to fly out over the weekend when the storm is expected to have weakened; some, like Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall, are already in Los Angeles.

The Show Highlights:

Look for the annual clip package of, for lack of a more reverential phrase, "TV Stars Who Died Last Year" to be led with a special tribute to John Ritter, who died unexpectedly on September 11, at age 54.

Ritter had been set to serve as a presenter at the ceremony. Although never honored by the Emmys for his latest sitcom, ABC's 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, he was a onetime winner, in 1984, for Three's Company.

Be ready for another potential eye-watering moment when pioneering prime-time star Bill Cosby, a three-time Emmy winner himself, is presented with the second annual Bob Hope Humanitarian Award by Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond.

The Favorites:

Expert TV watchers, from E! Online's Kristin Veitch to a coalition of top newspaper and magazine critics, expect Monk's Tony Shalhoub to repeat last January's upset Golden Globe win as best comedy actor, downing the likes of past Emmy winners Romano and McCormack.

In the top categories of best drama and comedy series, Veitch pegs Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm as the likely winners, respectively. The pundits at GoldDerby.com, the awards-prediction Website, side with The Sopranos and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Notably, no major TV head, outside of a guy at a Las Vegas sports book, thinks three-time defending champ The West Wing will make it four in a row. Last season, NBC's Oval Office drama was hit by the defections of Rob Lowe and creator Aaron Sorkin, as well as viewers.

The Good Stuff:

Emmy presenters will bag a reported $30,000 in merchandise courtesy of the official Emmy gift bag. Last year, the thank-you totes were worth a mere $24,000 each.

2003 gift-bag highlights include: a portable DVD player, the obligatory cell phone and a Tempur-Pedic Swedish Mattress. Fortunately for the back muscles of all parties involved, the mattress, like many of the goodies, will be offered in redeemable gift-certificate form.

Top acting nominees, meanwhile, will be gifted with, natch, gift certificates for $10,000 in fine bling-bling from the likes of Windsor Jewelers and Underwood's Fine Jewelers. Those attending Entertainment Weekly's pre-Emmy bash Saturday at posh Hollywood hang White Lotus will receive gift certificates for laser eye surgery, per the New York Daily News.

Because gift-bag goodies are nice, but pampering is even nicer, the Emmys' backstage greenroom, where presenters prepare to present, has been made up to resemble "a Parisian salon in the time of Napoleon III" by the design mavens at Architectual Digest.

Additionally, the Shrine's bathrooms have been recast by the makeup mavens of Lancome as "deluxe beauty lounges," offering last-minute manicures, pedicures and, if all else has failed, makeovers, all free of charge.

After the show, winners and extra-special guests will segue to the Shrine's Expo Hall, known this weekend as Club 55 at Cocoanut Grove, in honor of the old L.A. hotspot, where the Governors Ball will feature food by the chef from star-friendly restaurant Patina and chocolate cigars by Ethel M chocolates.

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