Golden Globe Musings: Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Television Series

The following represents some preliminary thoughts on Golden Globe contenders for the given category. Predictions will be narrowed and revised towards the end of November or the beginning of December. A reminder that last year’s nominees mean zilch at the Globes and that the race is almost entirely unpredictable. As far as the supporting categories go, a majority of the nominees usually come from TV movies and mini-series. I will be analyzing and predicting only the nominees who come from drama or comedy series.

Last year’s nominees:
JEREMY PIVEN, ENTOURAGE
MASI OKA, HEROES
JUSTIN KIRK, WEEDS

This year’s top contenders:
DONALD SUTHERLAND, DIRTY SEXY MONEY
Sutherland is an awards magnet, especially with the Golden Globes. He earned a nod for a far lesser performance on the short-lived “Commander-in-Chief” two years ago. He has an awesome role as the patriarch of a ridiculously rich family on “Dirty Sexy Money” and should be able to crack the top five.

JEREMY PIVEN, ENTOURAGE
Piven has been nominated three years running now, the entire broadcast history of the show. He just keeps getting better, which is an impressive feat. Sean Hayes, who only got worse as “Will & Grace”, stuck around quite a while in this category.

TERRY O’QUINN, LOST
O’Quinn had a killer episode this year (“The Man from Tallahassee”) for which he won an Emmy. His performance throughout the entire season is fairly sparse, however. “Lost” may have fallen out of favor with the Globes, but stars Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox, and Evangeline Lilly have all been nominated over the past two years.

JOHN KRASINSKI, THE OFFICE
Krasinski missed out on an Emmy nomination this year due to a poor submitted episode, but he has been on the cusp of receiving some sort of recognition for his performance for a while now. If they really love “The Office”, Krasinski might have a shot…

RAINN WILSON, THE OFFICE
…but Wilson has the far showier role. While I would be ecstatic if both got nominated, I am not sure if support is strong enough for both of them to make it in. All three “Sex and the City” ladies did make it in 2003. I may just have to predict them both to be hopeful and find myself disappointed once again.

Anyone else? “Weeds” goofball Justin Kirk made it in last year for his wacky portrayal of Andy Botwin on the Showtime comedy. His role this year has not been as major as it was in past seasons. The same goes for Masi Oka, who was nominated for “Heroes” last year but has sort of lost his charm. William Shatner (“Boston Legal”) and Naveen Andrews (“Lost”) are both past nominees who had their time to shine, but have done little to reinvigorate their performances recently. “Damages” villain Ted Danson once got nominated for “Becker” and critics raved about his performance on the FX drama. There is always the unlikely possibility that Walton Goggins could actually get some sort of award or nomination for his stunning work on “The Shield” this past season.

Current predictions:
DONALD SUTHERLAND, DIRTY SEXY MONEY
JEREMY PIVEN, ENTOURAGE
JOHN KRASINSKI, THE OFFICE
RAINN WILSON, THE OFFICE