The Couch Potato's Golden Globe favorites

Neil Patrick Harris better walk away with a Golden Globe statuette this weekend.

The brilliant, hilarious actor, who plays womanizer Barney on “How I Met Your Mother,” is up for Best Supporting Actor at the 66th annual Globes, scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday on NBC.

We saw a new side of Barney this year, when he went from being the lothario we all know and love to being the, well, same lothario, but one who realizes he’s falling for his best friend’s ex-girlfriend (Cobie Smulders’ Robin).

He’s now deftly walking that fine line between Barney’s usual outrageous antics and his newly discovered emotional side.

The category is for supporting actors in a series, miniseries or made-for-TV movie, and all of his competitors come from HBO: Jeremy Piven (“Entourage”), Blair Underwood (“In Treatment”), Denis Leary (the movie “Recount”) and Tom Wilkinson (the miniseries “John Adams”).

It just has to be his year.

Here are the rest of my predictions for the major categories:

Best Drama Series

Nominees: “Dexter” (Showtime), House (“Fox”), “In Treatment” (HBO), “Mad Men” (AMC) and “True Blood” (HBO)

Likely winner: “Mad Men”

My pick: Anything but “True Blood.”

Best Actress in a Drama

Nominees: Sally Field (ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters), Mariska Hargitay (NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), January Jones (AMC’s “Mad Men”), Anna Paquin (HBO’s “True Blood”) and Kyra Sedgwick (TNT’s “The Closer”)

Likely winner: “True Blood” heroine Paquin. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the Globes, often likes to reward newcomers; see past wins for then up-and-comers like Keri Russell (“Felicity”) and Jennifer Garner (“Alias”). Paquin isn’t a newcomer in the traditional sense — she’s been starring in films since she was a kid — but this is her first major TV role. Plus, she’s one of the HBO series’ few bright spots.

My pick: Either Field, who plays one of television’s best, albeit meddling, mothers on “Brothers & Sisters,” or Sedgwick, who continues to bring equal amounts of toughness and vulnerability to Brenda on “The Closer.”

Best Actor in a Drama

Nominees: Gabriel Byrne (HBO’s “In Treatment”), Michael C. Hall (Showtime’s “Dexter”), Jon Hamm (AMC’s “Mad Men”), Hugh Laurie (Fox’s “House”) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Showtime’s “The Tudors”)

Likely winner: Hamm, who also won last year, but wasn’t able to pick up his award because the ceremony wasn’t televised (thanks again, writer’s strike!).

My pick: Hugh Laurie, who I’m currently nursing quite the crush on. He is just so good as the cranky, volatile Dr. House.

Best Comedy

Nominees: “30 Rock” (NBC), “Californication” (Showtime), “Entourage” (HBO), “The Office” (NBC) and “Weeds” (Showtime)

Likely winner/My pick: “30 Rock,” which truly has one of the best ensembles on television.

Best Actress in a Comedy

Nominees: Christina Applegate (ABC’s “Samantha Who?”), America Ferrera (ABC’s “Ugly Betty”), Tina Fey (NBC’s “30 Rock”), Debra Messing (USA’s “The Starter Wife”) and Mary-Louise Parker (Showtime’s “Weeds”)

Likely winner/My pick: Come on, it’s Tina Fey’s year if there ever were one.

Best Actor in a Comedy

Nominees: Alec Baldwin (NBC’s “30 Rock”), Steve Carell (NBC’s “The Office”), Kevin Connolly (HBO’s “Entourage”), David Duchovny (Showtime’s “Californication”) and Tony Shalhoub (USA’s “Monk”)

Likely winner/My pick: Baldwin, who somehow manages to keep a straight face in every ludicrous situation his character encounters.