This year Phoebe Waller-Bridge managed to receive four Emmy nominations: one for starring on “Fleabag,” another for writing that show’s Season 2 premiere, and two more for producing both “Fleabag” and “Killing Eve.” While the race for Best Comedy Actress right now appears to be between Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Veep”), might Waller-Bridge’s overall visibility factor help her prevail for starring in the comedy series she created?
“Fleabag” follows a young woman named Fleabag (Waller-Bridge) who’s trying to cope with life in London whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy. The BBC/Amazon comedy series is adapted from Waller-Bridge’s one-woman play of the same name. For her performance, she won the BAFTA for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Program for the show’s first season back in 2017.
As of this writing Louis-Dreyfus is widely predicted to win with 69/20 odds, according to Gold Derby’s combined predictions. In second place there’s actually a tie between Waller-Bridge and Brosnahan, both with 9/2 odds. Brosnahan and Louis-Dreyfus are both reigning Emmy champs who are not only competitive for the win, but they also have consistent track records.
Louis-Dreyfus has won six years in a row for the first six seasons of “Veep.” She also has the narrative of coming back to the series for the final season after taking a year off as she went through cancer. Meanwhile, Brosnahan not only prevailed last year for the first season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (in absence of “Veep”), but also took home the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice TV Awards two years in a row as well as the Screen Actors Guild for the second season.
It’s also worth noting that despite only being the second season of “Fleabag,” it is still the final season. We’ve seen the television academy give several farewell hugs in recent years. In 2014, the final season of “Breaking Bad” won three acting prizes for Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Anna Gunn. In 2015, Jon Hamm finally won Best Drama Actor for the final season of “Mad Men.” In 2016, Maggie Smith won her third Emmy in Best Drama Supporting Actress for the final season of “Downton Abbey.” And last year, Matthew Rhys won Best Drama Actor for the final season of “The Americans” while Claire Foy won Best Drama Actress for her final appearance on “The Crown.”
On paper, you’d think Emmy voters would just name-check previous winners like Brosnahan or Louis-Dreyfus. However, this is the fourth consecutive year of the new voting system where voters can no longer rank the nominees. It is now a plurality vote, where whatever receives the most votes wins. With that in mind, we haven’t seen as many repeat winners as usual. Last year for example only saw one repeat winner in an acting category, Peter Dinklage in Best Drama Supporting Actor for “Game of Thrones.” Meanwhile, two people who were expected to repeat — Donald Glover (“Atlanta”) for Best Comedy Actor and Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) for Best Drama Actress — both lost in their respective categories.
PREDICT the Emmys now; change them until September 22
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 22. And join in the fun debate over the 2019 Emmys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our television forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
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