While some Emmy races feel like foregone conclusions, Best Comedy Actor might be one laced with suspense this year. Our pundits are split between two people on shows involving acting classes, reigning champ Bill Hader (“Barry”) and Michael Douglas (“The Kominsky Method”).
With 18/5 odds, Hader is slightly ahead of Douglas (4/1). Hader is backed by five Experts, four Editors and 19 of our Top 24 users. Douglas has three Experts, four Editors and three of our top users in his corner.
The pair split the first two awards of the year, with Douglas beating Hader to take the Golden Globe and Hader returning the favor to claim the Critics’ Choice Award. Both lost the Screen Actors Guild Award to Tony Shalhoub (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), who may have benefited from vote-splitting since Douglas’ and Hader’s respective co-stars Alan Arkin and Henry Winkler were also nominated.
SEE Michael Douglas’ 14 greatest movies, ranked worst to best
Hader, who also has an Emmy for producing “South Park,” has the advantage of being fresher in voters’ minds since Season 2 of “Barry” premieres March 31. Voters also like repeat champs in this category; since 2000, only six people have won this category once for the same role, not counting Hader. He also pulled off a minor upset last year, defeating odds-on favorite Donald Glover (“Atlanta”), who is not eligible this year.
But Douglas is the bigger name, the bigger star, if that counts for anything anymore in these races. He’s a previous Emmy winner for “Behind the Candelabra” (2013), and got his first nomination way back in 1974 for “The Streets of San Francisco.”
Ted Danson (“The Good Place”), Don Cheadle (“Black Monday”), Jim Carrey (“Kidding”) and Anthony Anderson (“Black-ish”) round out the rest of our predicted top six.
PREDICT the Emmy nominees now; change them until July 16
In the near future, you can check out how our experts rank this year’s Emmy contenders. Then take a look at the most up-to-date combined odds before you make your own 2019 Emmy predictions. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until just before nominations are announced on July 16.
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