Gold Derby’s Emmy Experts from major media outlets are divided over this year’s race for Best Drama Actor. The majority of our knowledgeable pundits forecasts that Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”) will win his second consecutive Emmy in this category (and third overall after his 2016 victory for “The People v. O.J. Simpson”). But others believe that Matthew Rhys will take home his first Emmy Award for the final season of “The Americans.”
SEE 2018 Emmy nominations complete list: All the nominees for the 70th Emmy Awards
The eight Experts backing Brown are Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Chris Harnick (E), Matthew Jacobs (HuffPo), Tom O’Neil (Gold Derby), Robert Rorke (New York Post), Anne Thompson (Indiewire), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) and Adnan Virk (ESPN). Brown plays family man Randall Pearson on NBC’s “This Is Us,” who in Season 2 dealt with such storylines as grieving the death of his biological father (Emmy nominee Ron Cephas Jones) and becoming a new foster parent.
These four Experts believe that Rhys will prevail: Matt Roush (TV Guide Magazine), Ben Travers (Indiewire), Ken Tucker (Yahoo) and Glenn Whipp (LA Times). After six seasons playing Russian spy Philip Jennings on FX’s “The Americans,” Rhys is hoping to take home his first career Emmy for the series finale, titled “START.”
The remaining Expert is Eric Deggans (NPR), who goes out on a limb for Jeffrey Wright (“Westworld”) for his role as Bernard, a robotic host. In his episode submission “The Passenger,” Wright proves why he made the jump from supporting (where he was nominated last year) to lead as Bernard comes to realize several truths about the people around him.
When our Experts’ predictions are combined together, Brown earns leading 8/11 racetrack odds with Rhys in second place at 13/5 odds. Following those two frontrunners, there’s a big drop-off on our chart for the other nominees: Milo Ventimiglia (“This Is Us”) at 14/1 odds, Wright at 18/1 odds, Jason Bateman (“Ozark”) at 40/1 odds and Ed Harris (“Westworld”) at 80/1 odds.
PREDICT the Emmy winners now; change them until September 17
Be sure to make your Emmy predictions today so that Hollywood insiders can see how their TV shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until just before winners are announced on September 17. Be sure to also predict winners for the Creative Arts ceremonies slated for September 8 and 9. And join in the fun debate over the 2018 Emmy taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our television forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
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