SAG Winner Predictions: Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series

The competition: Christina Applegate’s angry widow (Dead to Me), Linda Cardellini’s well-intentioned friend (Dead to Me), Kaley Cuoco’s frazzled flight attendant (The Flight Attendant), Annie Murphy’s PR guru (Schitt’s Creek) and Catherine O’Hara’s eccentric actress (Schitt’s Creek).

For your information: Both eligible nominees from last year are back. In addition to last year’s bid, O’Hara was nominated in 2010 for “Temple Grandin” and as part of her ensemble last year, along with Murphy, who earns her first solo bid this year. In addition to last year, Applegate was nominated three times in a row in this category for “Samantha Who?” a decade ago. She’s joined by costar Cardellini, who was nominated as part of the “Brokeback Mountain” ensemble in 2005. Cuoco contended six times as part of the “Big Bang Theory” ensemble, most recently in 2016. O’Hara and Murphy both won Emmys this past fall, and O’Hara won the Golden Globe. Supporting actresses have won this prize eleven times in twenty-six years. Out of nine times that two women from the same show have contended for this prize, only once did it lead to a win, in 2018 for Rachel Brosnahan. This is only the third time in SAG history, after 2003 and 2018, that two shows have earned two nominations each in the same year. All three shows represented here also have their ensembles nominated.

Who should win? Cuoco was terrific, but I’d choose Cardellini for her incredible and underappreciated work.

Who will win? I don’t see how O’Hara loses this.