One of the hottest races at the 2021 Emmys is undoubtedly Best Comedy Actress. For much of the season, Kaley Cuoco (“The Flight Attendant”) has dominated Gold Derby’s odds with a majority of our everyday Users predicting her to win for the HBO Max comedy. However, most of our Emmy Experts who hail from major media outlets have now switched to another HBO Max scene-stealer, Jean Smart (“Hacks”). Which group do YOU think is right? Hurry — there is still time to make your Emmy predictions before the nominations are announced on July 13.
The 21 Emmy Experts who forecast a victory for Smart are: Matt Roush (TV Guide Magazine), Christopher Rosen (Gold Derby), Tom O’Neil (Gold Derby), Matthew Jacobs (unaffiliated), Thelma Adams (Gold Derby), Kelly Lawler (USA Today), Michael Schneider (Variety), Kaitlin Thomas (Gold Derby), Clayton Davis (Variety), Ed Martin (Media Village), Lynn Elber (Associated Press), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Tim Gray (Variety), Libby Hill (Indiewire), Susan Wloszczyna (Gold Derby), Jazz Tangcay (Variety), Ken Tucker (Yahoo), Peter Travers (ABC), Anne Thompson (Indiewire), Keith Simanton (IMDb) and Lynette Rice (Ent. Weekly). Smart plays Deborah Vance, an iconic Las Vegas stand-up comedian whose career is stalling. If our pundits are right, it would be the veteran actress’ fourth Emmy triumph after previously winning twice for “Frasier” (2000 and ’01) and once for “Samantha Who” (2008).
Conversely, these six Emmy Experts are still banking on a win for Cuoco: Wilson Morales (BlackFilmandTV), Ben Travers (Indiewire), Debbie Day (Rotten Tomatoes), Matt Webb Mitovich (TVLine), Susan King (Gold Derby) and Eric Deggans (NPR). Cuoco takes on the role of Cassie Bowden, an international flight attendant who gets too drunk after a flight and becomes inexplicably linked to a murder conspiracy. This would be the former “Big Bang Theory” star’s first career Emmy nomination.
Our final Emmy Expert, Shawn Edwards (WDAF-TV Fox), goes out on a limb by predicting a victory for Lena Waithe (“Master of None”). This multi-hyphenate already took home an Emmy in 2017 for co-writing the episode “Thanksgiving” with Aziz Ansari, but now she’s hoping for her first acting nomination.
Other funny ladies likely to hear their names called on nominations morning, per our combined predictions, are Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”), Renee Elise Goldsberry (“Girls5eva”), Jane Levy (“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”) and Allison Janney (“Mom”).
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
