Yahoo News Pete Hammond’s Emmy Predictions 2022: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series – 3 Past Winners Vs. 3 Newcomers To The Category
The winners in the Emmy Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 are once again in the race. The only catch is it could be one of three people: Donald Glover who took it in 2017, Bill Hader who nabbed it in 2018 and 2019, or Jason Sudeikis who won last year. Voters have given us all sorts of reasons to make a prediction for one of this trio. The other three in this year’s race are first-time nominees in the category, but two of them are true veteran showbiz icons. This group of heavy hitters presents us with a category that is not at all easy to prognosticate, one that could go any which way.
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Donald Glover, Atlanta
Glover’s series Atlanta brought him Emmys in its first season in 2017, for directing and for this category. The next year he received five personal nominations, including four for doing everything on Atlanta. But since then, Atlanta has been on hiatus, only to finally return this season. Is the love still there? Indications are it may have been away too long, but Glover did manage to at least find himself back in this race again. I find it hard to believe that all-important momentum for another win hasn’t been lost.
Merrick Morton/HBO
Bill Hader, Barry
Hader has an astonishing 24 total nominations over the course of his career, and he won back-to-back Emmys in this category for both previous seasons of Barry in 2018 and 2019. The critical reception for the long-delayed third season has been exceptional, and he is currently rocking a total of four nominations this year including writing and directing mentions for Barry, as well as a Guest Actor nom for Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hader is certainly a hit with the TV Academy.
Gareth Gatrell/Hulu
Nicholas Hoult, The Great
Hoult is an attractive prospect for this category, its youngest nominee and the only one who has never been nominated for any Emmy, here competing against a quintet of veterans with Emmy cred not just as actors but in other categories as well. This is a tall order, but Hoult is delightfully matched with Elle Fanning in this period romp loosely based on Russian Empress Catherine the Great, and he certainly has his fans.
Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu
Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building
A showbusiness legend by any definition, you might be surprised to learn Martin, though nominated 12 times for an Emmy in various capacities, has only won once, for his first nomination in 1969, more than a half-century ago, as one of the writers of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. This year he is also nominated as a producer and writer of Only Murders, so he has three chances to finally get a bookend for that aging Emmy — a good thing because in this category he has to face off with his good friend and co-star Martin Short.
Barbara Nitke/Hulu
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Another icon, he has had 13 nominations over his Emmy lifetime and two wins, his first also coming as a writer in 1983 for SCTV Network. Short is terrific at just about anything he does, and if you have to choose between him and Martin, I would say Short is the kind of scene-stealer who could also steal an Emmy from his good buddy. The likelihood is that they both may just cancel each other out, which makes this a much easier situation to call.
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Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
Sudeikis took this category, and rightly so, last year for Ted Lasso’s first season. He has won just about every award in the book for the role and there is little doubt he has strong momentum to make it two in a row, but as we noted, another ex-SNL castmate named Hader could stand in the way. It might be the battle of the undefeated, and which way it will go could get very interesting.
THE PREDICTED WINNER: BILL HADER, BARRY
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
There are three Ted Lasso co-stars — Toheeb Jimoh, Nick Mohammed and reigning winner Brett Goldstein — competing against each other here. Goldstein proved sheer numbers didn’t mean cancelling each other out, at least the way it came down last year. Past rivals in the category (including a win for Barry in 2018 for Henry Winkler) finds Winkler and castmate Anthony Carrigan facing off again as well. SNL’s popular Bowen Yang has his third nomination, while Mrs. Maisel’s Tony Shalhoub is back in familiar territory looking for another Emmy win in this series, just one of his overall 12 lifetime nominations — four wins — proving he can never be counted out. Finally, another new first-time nominee for the upstart Abbott Elementary, Tyler James Williams looks to break out and take it away from this whole formidable mob of talent represented here.
THE PREDICTED WINNER: HENRY WINKLER, BARRY
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