Emmy Awards 2010: Who Will Win?

Emmy Awards 2010: Who Will Win?

The 2010 Emmy Award nomination list is out — start the speculation. Glee is sure to rack up the awards, leading the entire field with 19 nominations including Best Comedy Series. The big news this year is that fans of Friday Night Lights finally have something to cheer for. Both Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were nominated for Best Drama acting awards. Some of the same Emmy questions from last year are still on our minds. Will Jon Hamm finally beat out Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston? Here’s our predictions for the most popular categories.

BEST COMEDY SERIES

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Glee (FOX)

Modern Family (ABC)

Nurse Jackie (Showtime)

The Office (NBC)

30 Rock (NBC)

Glee fever is a serious condition. I’ve known people from all walks of life who watch their first episode of Glee and by the next morning they’ve seen every episode. Though their eyes may be blurry, they stand as a testament to the power of FOX’s comedy mega-hit. Glee walks away with this award, easy, even though 30 Rock (a perennial Emmy favorite) and Showtime’s Nurse Jackie provide stiff competition. The darkhorse candidate in this category has to be Nurse Jackie. This has been one of my favorite shows this year, but the question is will Emmy voters get past its extremely dark comedy and give it a nod?

BEST COMEDY ACTOR

Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)

Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Matthew Morrison (Glee)

Tony Shalhoub (Monk)

Steve Carell (The Office)

Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Emmy Awards 2010The winner of this category depends heavily on how Glee-happy the Emmy voters get. If you see Glee winning a lot of early categories, you can write in the victory here for Matthew Morrison. Otherwise, Alec Baldwin is the likeliest candidate. Dark horse candidate Jim Parsons is a fan favorite, but his show has usually gotten the old Emmy snub.

BEST COMEDY ACTRESS

Lea Michele (Glee)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)

Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)

Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)

Tina Fey (30 Rock)

Toni Collette (United States of Tara)

The most likely winner in this category who is not in the cast of Glee is Tina Fey. 30 Rock goes big at the Emmys, and for good reason. Your dark horse candidate, Edie Falco of Nurse Jackie, deserves some kind of recognition for her virtuoso performance. Heck, Nurse Jackie needs accolades for being a medical show that doesn’t bore us to tears. Lea Michele or Tina Fey wins this one.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR

Chris Colfer (Glee)

Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)

Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family)

Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)

Ty Burrell (Modern Family)

Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men)

Statistics dictate that someone from Modern Family is going to win this award. Using the “funniest name usually wins the award” tactic, I predict that Eric Stonestreet goes him with an Emmy in his rental car. Yes, Neil Patrick Harris should win it, but since Modern Family got screwed out of the Best Comedy Series category, expect Emmy voters to offer a consolation prize to Mr. Stonestreet.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS

Jane Lynch (Glee)

Julie Bowen (Modern Family)

Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)

Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)

Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)

Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men)

Not to sound like a broken record, but audiences really love Glee. Glee-heads pester their friends until their friends watch it, then those friends pester three or four other friends until eventually you’re getting your hair cut and Glee is on in the barbershop. All that to say — Jane Lynch wins the Emmy.

BEST DRAMA SERIES

Breaking Bad (AMC)

Dexter (Showtime)

The Good Wife (CBS)

Lost (ABC)

Mad Men (AMC)

True Blood (HBO)

In what could be the greatest snub in Emmy history, neither the consistently good Friday Night Lights or the phenomenon that is Treme were nominated for Best Drama Series. The team at Friday Night Lights have taken an impossible concept and made huge changes over the last two seasons that did nothing but up the awesomeness of this show. Since we have to hand an Emmy out to a show other than Friday Night Lights or Treme, let’s throw a dart and say Lost will win because it recently ended. And we’ll say it with clear eyes and full hearts.

BEST DRAMA ACTOR

Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)

Michael C. Hall (Dexter)

Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)

Hugh Laurie (House)

Matthew Fox (Lost)

Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

This is the year that Jon Hamm will stand up and collect his Emmy. Cranston has won it two years running, and he certainly deserves it. His acting in Breaking Bad is just frighteningly good. However, three Emmys in a row is too much. Let’s honor Hamm for his performance in AMC’s instant classic Mad Men.

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Mike O’Malley (Glee)

Neil Patrick Harris (Glee)

Fred Willard (Modern Family)

Eli Wallach (Nurse Jackie)

Jon Hamm (30 Rock)

Will Arnett (30 Rock)

Despite a personal soft spot for Will Arnett from his GOB days, you have to think that a great character actor like Fred Willard or Jon Hamm is going to walk away with this Emmy. Willard’s earned it, and we’d love to see him be honored for his outstanding performance in Modern Family as well as his body of work in general, but just in case it doesn’t work that way, it is probably safe to pencil in anyone with Glee next to their name. Eli Wallach is a darkhorse.

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Christine Baranski (The Big Bang Theory)

Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives)

Kristin Chenoweth (Glee)

Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live)

Betty White (Saturday Night Live)

Elaine Stritch (30 Rock)

Jane Lynch (Two and a Half Men)

If Betty White weren’t on this list for her hilarious SNL episode, this award would be Kristin Chenoweth’s without question. The presence of White, who has crashed back onto the pop culture scene with multiple TV appearances and flirting openly with LeBron James, makes this a no-brainer. Emmy goes to the Golden Girl.

BEST VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES

The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO)

Saturday Night Live (NBC)

The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien (NBC)

This is the only category that really matters at this year’s Emmys. You look down this list and see some familiar names — Colbert, Jon Stewart, SNL — then you get to The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien and you realize just how “down with Coco” the Emmys really are. This is a sure thing. You don’t lose your job on a television show only to see that show nominated for an Emmy the same year. It is unprecedented.

Whether you watch the Emmys to play a drinking game (take a shot every time someone says “Hugh Laurie’s accent is so convincing!”) or because you stand behind a particular show or performer, award season wouldn’t be right without the Primetime Emmys. Have your own predictions about these or any other categories? Let us know. Consider this your chance to sing the praises of your favorite show, nominated or not.

A lot of the television shows that have been nominated for Emmy Awards in 2010 are available on DVD at Amazon. Check them out below:

See also: How to Get Satellite Television

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Entertainment, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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