Emmy Watch: Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Can someone from Space Force, like John Malkovich, storm in with a relatively sparse field of players?

Comedy isn’t as crowded as drama this awards season, in part because more than half of last year’s nominees in the race aren’t eligible this time around, and there’s no wave of returning nominees set to automatically refill those slots. Henry Winkler, Anthony Carrigan and Stephen Root will all need to wait for whenever Barry premieres its third season. Two-time winner Tony Hale (Veep) won’t be back because his show ended. That leaves just two potential consecutive returning nominees, and it would be a big surprise if either of them missed: defending champion Tony Shalhoub (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Alan Arkin (The Kominsky Method). They could easily be joined by a handful of eligible past nominees if voters are feeling nostalgic

The past four years...

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Emmy Watch: Supporting Actress Drama Contenders

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Can Fiona Shaw return despite heaps of competition?

Our Emmy punditry continues with Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. There’s a lot to unpack in this very crowded race. A full two-thirds of last year’s nominees won’t be back because they all starred on the now-ended Game of Thrones.

Count on defending champ Julia Garner (Ozark) to return, especially since the latest season of her show recently premiered to great acclaim (she may also be joined by costar Janet McTeer). I’m not sure the same will be true for Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve), since her role isn’t at all central and it’s not yet known if the show will be as well-received by Emmy voters as it was for its second season. Theoretically, that leaves four and maybe even five spots wide open, but that doesn’t take into account the many previously nominated actresses on shows returning from a season off the air and newly back in contention…

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Emmy Watch: Who are the Supporting Actor Drama Contenders?

Giancarlo Esposito in "Better Call Saul"by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Our Emmy punditry continues with Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. This category has plenty of contenders, but unlike the corresponding female fields, there are more past nominees that aren’t eligible than ones that are. The end of Game of Thrones means three opens slots, and Michael Kelly is also out of the running since House of Cards is (mercifully) over.

What’s especially interesting about this category is that, because of season-skipping, character departures, and category switches, there’s actually only one nominee from the past four years who didn’t earn a repeat bid the next time he was eligible. That happens to be Jon Voight (Ray Donovan), who is indeed a very unlikely possibility this year for the final season of his series after three years of missing out. He’s way behind a number of other actors…

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Emmy Watch: Who will be up for Comedy Actress?

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

The "what will be nominated at the Emmys?" conversation continues. Today: Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. 

Last year, this category was upended in a major way, with just one of the six eligible previous nominees – winner Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) returning to the lineup. 2020, then, could be a good chance for any of the booted five to rejoin the race, as three of last year’s nominees won’t be back. Past winners Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) will have to wait for new series to bring them back since those shows have ended, and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) will probably return whenever her show does, which won’t be this season. It’s fair to assume that the other three nominees will be back: Brosnahan, Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), whose show just aired its series finale and who is definitely the fan favorite (of this site), and Christina Applegate (Dead to Me), whose second season will in fact arrive on time for Emmy consideration…

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Emmy Watch: Best Actor in a Comedy

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

The "what will be nominated at the Emmys?" conversation continues. Today: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.  Looking at last year’s nominees, this field may not be all that different apart from the top. Only one nominee, two-time defending champion Bill Hader won’t be back. Barry hasn’t yet announced its season three premiere date. On the other hand though there’s every reason to expect that the two departing contenders, Ted Danson (The Good Place) and Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek), will return for their show’s swan songs. Those two shows seem to have the largest fanbases among TFE readers so we assume you're rooting for them.

Another nominee from last year, Don Cheadle (Black Monday), is a toss-up. But given that he earned four consecutive nominations in this category earlier this decade as pretty much the only representation from House of Lies, scoring yet another solo bid doesn’t feel far-fetched. Anthony Anderson (Black-ish) has been nominated five times in a row, and he survived his show being ousted from the Best Comedy Series race last year, so he may be able to do it again. Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method) is a good bet to return, but his show’s snub in the top race last year makes his chances less secure than they should be…

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