Sunday, September 14, 2008

Emmy Winner Predictions: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series


Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order.

Charlie Sheen is commonly written about as the worst actor on television. Any awards recognition for his work on “Two and a Half Men” would bring shame upon the entire world of television. His episode submission does showcase him as a funny character, but the acting is dreadful. Lee Pace could pull off a surprise victory for “Pushing Daisies”, but the snubbing of his show in the Best Comedy Series category seems to indicate that Emmy voters aren’t completely in love with his show’s brand of humor. Tony Shalhoub is a force to be reckoned with, winning this trophy three times in the past five years, losing only to one-time entrants Kelsey Grammer and Ricky Gervais. His episode submission, as pointed out by Tom O’Neil, includes an amusing scene where he recalls his own birth. He could repeat, but I think this category is down to two men who somehow haven’t won Emmys for their respective shows: Steve Carrell and Alec Baldwin. Carrell chose a brilliant episode to submit (“Goodbye Toby”), in which he’s terrific and goes from disgusting to likeable over the course of forty minutes. He’s chosen well before (“The Injury”) and that hasn’t worked. He’ll win eventually, I hope, but this year should be Baldwin’s turn. Baldwin lost last year because of a poor episode submission (I didn’t expect Gervais, but I knew Baldwin wouldn’t win). This year, he’s armed with a good submission made unbeatable by a hilarious scene where he imitates every member of Tracy Morgan’s family. How can he lose?

Who should win (based on entire season): Steve Carrell
Who should win (based on individual episodes): Alec Baldwin
Who will win: Alec Baldwin (alternate: Steve Carrell)

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