2024 Emmy Predictions: Best Comedy Supporting Actress
Since reigning Best Comedy Supporting Actress Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”) is now nominated as a lead, the contest to determine her successor is wide open to half a dozen particularly strong candidates. Currently out front is Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”), who would be the first actress since Estelle Getty (“The Golden Girls,” 1988) to initially prevail here on her third nomination.
Einbinder is now involved in her first rematches against “Abbott Elementary” castmates Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph, the latter of whom bested her on her last outing in 2022. Their remaining present challengers are total Emmys newcomer Liza Colón-Zayas (“The Bear”) and legendary outside winners Carol Burnett (“Palm Royale”) and Meryl Streep (“Only Murders in the Building”).
In order to make sense of this race, let’s take a closer look at each nominee. Be sure to make your predictions in this and 24 other Primetime Emmy categories by September 15.
Carol Burnett as Norma Dellacorte (“Palm Royale”)
Episode: “Maxine Shakes the Tree”
Burnett’s first Emmy notice for a regular, non-sketch series role makes the nonagenarian the oldest lead or supporting nominee in TV academy history and gives her a shot at breaking the overall record for oldest acting winner. In her submitted episode of this new show, her previously comatose character quietly observes as her nephew’s wife uncovers family secrets that she has worked hard to conceal.
Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero (“The Bear”)
Episode: “Pop”
Edebiri’s absence from this race makes room for Colón-Zayas, who began her acting career less than a year before her newly promoted castmate was born. In “Pop,” her Tina uses the skills she has obtained in culinary school to develop her workplace’s new menu and takes it upon herself to encourage her less motivated coworker, Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson), to keep attending classes.
Hannah Einbinder as Ava Daniels (“Hacks”)
Episode: “Bulletproof”
This lineup’s youngest member by 15 years also ranks behind Sally Struthers (“All in the Family”), Faith Ford (“Murphy Brown”), and Julie Kavner (“Rhoda”) as the fourth youngest actress to receive three nominations in this category. Echoing her 2021 strategy, she has submitted her show’s third season finale which finds her character unsure of how to proceed with her writing career until she is let in on a shocking secret.
Janelle James as Ava Coleman (“Abbott Elementary”)
Episode: “Career Day, Part 1”
In the first half of this network sitcom’s third season premiere, James’s Ava puts her new online degree to use and becomes a more competent and mature school principal. Once they get over their initial shock and confusion, her subordinates actively scheme to get her to drop what they believe is just an act.
Sheryl Lee Ralph as Barbara Howard (“Abbott Elementary”)
Episode: “Librarian”
Ralph is now seeking a bookend win in this category after coming up short against Edebiri on her second bid. Her season three submission involves her veteran teacher character struggling to adapt to the modernization of her school’s library. She was previously honored here for the show’s fourth episode, “New Tech,” in which Barbara pridefully resists assistance in learning a new computer program.
Meryl Streep as Loretta Durkin (“Only Murders in the Building”)
Episode: “Grab Your Hankies”
Like everyone else in this lineup except Ralph, Streep (who has won three Emmys in other categories) is nominated for her first regular part on a comedy series. In her second of six third season episodes, her stage actress character helps her director and love interest, Oliver (Martin Short), secure funding for his new musical by performing one of its key songs (“Look for the Light”) for its producers.
So, who will win the 2024 Emmy for Best Comedy Supporting Actress? Given that 69% of the Gold Derby readers predicting this race believe Einbinder will prevail, it’s tough to bet against her. Indeed, there is ample reason to back the consensus that “Hacks” and “The Bear” will evenly split the regular female and male comedy acting awards as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Barry” did in 2018 and “Sex and the City” and “Frasier” did in 2004.
Although Einbinder isn’t likely to lose to Ralph again, she may need to watch out for the first-timers, especially since Streep has held a large chunk of Gold Derby support all season and Colón-Zayas’s show could feasibly sweep all seven major comedy categories. At this point, one would be wisest to go with Einbinder while acknowledging that the thoroughly untested and heavily praised “Bear” actress is her strongest threat.
PREDICT the 2024 Emmy winners through September 15
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