A handful of people got one step closer to EGOT-ing on Wednesday, thanks to the Television Academy. After the 2024 Emmy nominations, songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are the closest to gaining membership to the coveted EGOT club, with a real shot of joining the ranks of the 19 artists who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony in competition.

Although both are just 39 years old, Pasek and Paul have been raking in awards for their songwriting for some time now. After meeting as musical theater students at the University of Michigan, the two won Tony Awards in 2017 for Dear Evan Hansen, starring Ben Platt. That same year, they also picked up a best-original-song Oscar for cowriting “City of Stars” from La La Land (a film produced by Ben’s father, Marc Platt). The following year, Dear Evan Hansen earned the duo a Grammy for best musical theater album, making them one Emmy-winning envelope away from achieving EGOT status.

Pasek and Paul’s first Emmy nomination for outstanding original music and lyrics came in 2018. They lost the award that year to SNL’s Chris Redd and Kenan Thompson, lyricists of the viral liberal-yearning anthem “Come Back Barack.” But this year, Pasek and Paul are back in Emmy contention—alongside cowriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, both Tony and Grammy winners—for an Only Murders in the Building season three toe-tapper, “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?”

The song, performed in the series by Steve Martin’s Charles-Haden Savage, is a delightful and tongue-twisting patter song. It could very well allow Pasek and Paul to join Frozen, Coco, Avenue Q, and Book of Mormon composer Robert Lopez as the youngest people to ever EGOT. (Lopez also achieved EGOT status at 39, and he has since become the first person to double EGOT, a.k.a. win each award twice.) Pasek and Paul also won a Grammy Award for The Greatest Showman for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media in 2017, so if they were to win the Emmy this year, their EGOT would come from four separate projects: Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman, La La Land, and Only Murders in the Building. That's a rare feat in the world of EGOT.

But to earn the Emmy, they’ll have to beat some stiff competition. Pasek and Paul are up against other nominees like True Detective star John Hawkes and Maya Rudolph, whose nod for her musical Saturday Night Live opening is one of the four nominations she earned just this year. They’re also competing with Grammy- and Oscar-winning composing legend Hans Zimmer. Even if they do prevail against Zimmer, there’s one more nominee in the category they’d have to beat out to clinch EGOT status: Sara Bareilles, recognized for her musical stylings on the criminally underrated Netflix comedy Girls5eva.

By the way: If Bareilles takes home the Emmy, she’ll be halfway to EGOT status herself, as she already has two Grammys under her belt. Bareilles also has been nominated for three Tonys—two for original score and one for her indelible performance as the Baker’s Wife in the recent Into the Woods revival—so it feels like it won’t be long before she adds a T to her résumé.

And she’s not the only artist who has the potential to get halfway to EGOT at this year’s Emmys. Recent Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis is heavily favored to take home the guest-actress-in-a-comedy-series Emmy for her histrionic work as Carmy’s mother in season two of The Bear. And Matthew Broderick has the potential to go from two-time Tony winner to Tony and Emmy winner if he takes home the guest-actor-in-a-comedy-series trophy for his appearance as himself in Only Murders in the Building.

A handful of iconic actors in the Emmy conversation this year, like outstanding-supporting-actress-in-a-comedy nominees Meryl Streep (Only Murders in the Building) and Carol Burnett (Palm Royale), are only two awards away from a competitive-EGOT win. But if either of those two emerge victorious, it won’t move the EGOT needle—they both already have Emmys.

The same can’t be said for Jodie Foster, nominated for lead actress in a limited or anthology series for True Detective: Night Country; if she takes home an Emmy, she’ll be halfway to EGOT status as well. Five-time Emmy nominee Morgan Freeman would also reach the halfway point if he takes home outstanding narrator for the Netflix docuseries Life on Our Planet. Our two most recent supporting-actor and supporting-actress Oscar winners, Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, are chasing that vital second statue as well. They’re both nominated for Emmys—for outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series for The Sympathizer and outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for Only Murders in the Building, respectively.

Of all the actors looking to get halfway to EGOT, Oscar nominee and Tony winner Jonathan Pryce may be in the best position to inch closer to EGOT status. He’s nominated twice this year: for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his final season portraying Prince Philip on Netflix’s The Crown, and for outstanding guest actor in a drama series for his turn in Slow Horses.

Then again, actor and writer Tracy Letts—recipient of a surprise nomination for outstanding drama guest actor for playing basketball coach Jack McKinney on HBO’s canceled series Winning Time—may really be the one to watch. (Fun fact: His wife, Carrie Coon, also scored an Emmy nod Wednesday; she was recognized in drama lead actress for The Gilded Age.) If he were to win, he’d also be halfway to EGOT achievement; he’s already got two Tonys—one for writing August: Osage County, and one for acting in the revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Letts has a Pulitzer too, for writing August: Osage County—so PEGOT watch begins now.