By triumphing on his second consecutive Best Comedy Guest Actor Emmy bid for “Ted Lasso” last winter, Sam Richardson stunned nearly every Gold Derby user predicting the race, over half of whom were convinced he would lose to Jon Bernthal (“The Bear”). Whereas Richardson was recognized for a performance over 20 times the size of Bernthal’s, his winning screen time of almost six and a half minutes is lower than that of every actor now looking to inherit his crown.
The six current comedy guest actor contenders asked voters to consider their work in episodes in which they appear for an average of 12 minutes and 51 seconds (or 24.42% of the total running time). This data was calculated using a simple definition of stand-alone screen time, which is any time a given performer can be seen on screen or heard off screen. Although the TV academy now counts them in this category, contiguous moments of silent and non-visible scene time were not factored in here since every nominee meets the new 5% minimum without them.
The one primarily responsible for making this lineup’s screen time average four minutes and 9% higher than last year’s is Ryan Gosling, the group’s sole general first-timer whose performance as the April 13 host of “Saturday Night Live” amounts to 29 minutes and 59 seconds (or 43.12% of the episode). In terms of both actual time and percentage, his is the longest performance currently nominated in any of the four guest categories and even outpaces that of 2023 “Saturday Night Live” contender Pedro Pascal.
Trailing Gosling by a margin of more than 11 minutes is Bernthal, the lineup’s only category veteran who is once again nominated for “The Bear.” After ranking first in the 2023 Gold Derby race with a mere 17 seconds of screen time, he is back (and even more comfortably) in the same position with 18 minutes and 39 seconds. While every other episode of his show is less than 48 minutes long, his presently submitted “Fishes” runs for more than 66 minutes, giving him a screen time percentage of 28.14%.
This year’s remaining four comedy guest actor nominees all clock in below eight minutes and are separated by a maximum of only 48 seconds. The closest to Bernthal are his own castmates, Bob Odenkirk and Will Poulter, whose respective “Fishes” and “Honeydew” screen time totals are 7:29 (11.29%) and 7:11 (24.28%). Rounding out the roster are Matthew Broderick, who spends seven minutes and nine seconds (or 20.27%) of the “Only Murders in the Building” episode “CoBro” playing an unpleasant version of himself, and Christopher Lloyd, who portrays a reclusive screenwriter for six minutes and 41 seconds (or 19.42%) of the “Hacks” installment “The Deborah Vance Christmas Spectacular.”
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