For two straight seasons Selena Gomez has been nominated at the Primetime Emmys for “Only Murders in the Building.” But for two straight seasons it hasn’t been for acting. Like her co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short, she’s a producer of the Hulu mystery series, so she has been a nominee for Best Comedy Series in 2022 and 2023. There’s a good chance she’ll make the cut again in that category in 2024. But can she break into Best Comedy Actress this time? She’ll have to get past two beloved “Saturday Night Live” alums.
First, the good news. Four of last year’s five nominees for Best Comedy Actress are absent this year. Christina Applegate (“Dead to Me”) and Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) saw their shows come to an end last season, while Natasha Lyonne (“Poker Face”) and Jenna Ortega (“Wednesday”) were on hiatus this past season. That greatly opens up the field.
The potential bad news is that two of those slots are very likely to be taken up by last year’s Best Comedy Supporting Actress champ Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”), who is being promoted to lead this year, and two-time returning champion Jean Smart (“Hacks”). According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, they’re the two front-runners to win, and they will likely be joined in the category by last year’s Best Comedy Actress champ, Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”).
So that leaves two slots. There are several actresses who could take them, like longtime critical favorite Devery Jacobs (“Reservation Dogs”) and recent Gotham Awards champ Harriet Dyer (“Colin from Accounts”). But Gomez’s two biggest threats appear to be former “SNL” favorites Kristen Wiig (“Palm Royale”) and Maya Rudolph (“Loot”).
Wiig has been nominated nine times by the television academy without a win, so they may be incentivized to keep nominating her until she does. For a while Rudolph was in a similar boat; she didn’t even become a consistent Emmy nominee until 2018, from which point she has been nominated at least once every single year. And just since 2020 she has collected five trophies: three for her voice role in the animated series “Big Mouth” and twice for guest-hosting “SNL.” But despite the admiration for Rudolph, “Loot” was already eligible for Emmys once before and was completely shut out, so can Rudolph break in for season two?
As of this writing Gomez is sandwiched between the two veteran comediennes in our odds. Wiig is fourth with 11/2 odds. Gomez is fifth with 23/2 odds. And Rudolph is on the bubble in sixth with 13/1 odds. So from the looks of it, Gomez will finally be feted as an actress. But it might be a close call.
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