Emmy Predictions 2020 - Who Will Likely Be Nominated for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series?

From July 2 to July 13, 2020, voting is taking place for The 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. As such, it's fun to look at which actors and shows have the best chances of actually being nominated this year. So, these are my predictions for who will be nominated for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

2019 Nominees:

        Alan Arkin for Netflix's The Kominsky Method
        Anthony Carrigan for HBO's Barry
        Tony Hale for HBO's Veep
        Stephen Root for HBO's Barry
        Tony Shalhoub for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (WINNER)
        Henry Winkler for HBO's Barry

HBO's Barry dominated this category a year ago. The hitman comedy didn't produce any new episodes this year though. Beyond Alan Arkin and Tony Shalhoub, this category is entirely up for grabs. The expansion of the nominees will make it even more difficult to guess who actually has some momentum in the race. Schitt's Creek surged a year ago. As such, it's expected to get more nominations for its final season. Expect some to occur here. Saturday Night Live always has to be seen as a player as well. Any number of its regular ensemble members could break onto the list. Elsewhere, Sterling K. Brown and Mahershala Ali have proven themselves to be awards favorites. As such, they seem likely for their major recurring roles on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Ramy, respectively. These are a lot of possibilities. And then, some surprises could come from character actors looking for their first recognition by the voters. James Marsden had an unexpected but effective arc on Dead to Me in Season 2. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist may play better in the technical categories but this could be the likeliest field for an actor to get nominated. Peter Gallagher had a heartbreaking role in the first season of the musical dramedy. And finally, there are so many rich and deep ensembles across the medium that could pick up nominations here. This race may determine who actually has a case for winning Comedy Series. That will make it a huge indicator for the overall night. Comedy is in a transition period for the Emmys. The usual nominees are gone. A new era has begun that could set new patterns for what the future could hold with this organization.

For the 2020 awards ceremony, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences decided to tie the number of nominations to the number of submissions in each category. For Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, 251 actors were eligible on the ballot. That will translate to eight nominees in this category.

Actors most likely to be nominated:

1. Tony Shalhoub for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
2. Alan Arkin for Netflix's The Kominsky Method
3. Daniel Levy for Pop's Schitt's Creek
4. Sterling K. Brown for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
5. Kenan Thompson for NBC's Saturday Night Live
6. Mahershala Ali for Hulu's Ramy
7. James Marsden for Netflix's Dead to Me
8. Peter Gallagher for NBC's Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

Serious threats that could break through:

1. Louie Anderson for FX's Baskets
2. Alec Baldwin, Mikey Day, Pete Davidson, Kyle Mooney, Alex Moffat, Beck Bennett, Chris Redd, Bowen Yang, Michael Che and Colin Jost for NBC's Saturday Night Live
3. Michael Zegen, LeRoy McClain and Kevin Pollak for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
4. Noah Reid and Chris Elliott for Pop's Schitt's Creek
5. Nicholas Hoult for Hulu's The Great
6. William Jackson Harper and Manny Jacinto for NBC's The Good Place
7. John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz and Jimmy O. Yang for Netflix's Space Force
8. F. Murray Abraham, Danny Pudi and David Hornsby for AppleTV+'s Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet
9. Marc Maron and Chris Lowell for Netflix's GLOW
10. John Goodman, Walton Goggins, Adam Devine, Skyler Gisondo and Tim Baltz for HBO's The Righteous Gemstones
11. Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ed O'Neill for ABC's Modern Family
12. Josh Gad, Zach Woods and Ethan Phillips for HBO's Avenue 5
13. Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Matt Ross, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jimmy O. Yang and Josh Brener for HBO's Silicon Valley
14. Paul Reiser for Netflix's The Kominsky Method
15. Ted Danson, Jeff Garlin, JB Smoove and Richard Lewis for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm

Some considerable long-shots:

1. Sean Hayes for NBC's Will & Grace
2. Harvey Guillén and Mark Proksch for FX's What We Do in the Shadows
3. Andrew Rannells and Paul Scheer for Showtime's Black Monday
4. Skylar Astin and Alex Newell for NBC's Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
5. Andre Braugher, Joe Lo Truglio and Terry Crews for NBC's Brooklyn Nine-Nine
6. Laurence Fishburne and Deon Cole for ABC's Black-ish
7. Jay Ellis and Alexander Hodge for HBO's Insecure
8. Andrew Scott and John Gallagher Jr. for Amazon's Modern Love
9. GaTa, Travis Bennett and Andrew Santino for FXX's Dave
10. Jake Lacy, Kingsley Ben-Adir and David H. Holmes for Hulu's High Fidelity
11. Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling and Alistair Petrie for Netflix's Sex Education
12. Jay R. Ferguson and Michael Fishman for ABC's The Conners
13. Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston for Netflix's Grace and Frankie
14. Toby Huss and Adrian Blake Enscoe for AppleTV+'s Dickinson
15. Frank Langella, Bernard White and Justin Kirk for Showtime's Kidding
16. Theo Germaine, David Corenswet and Benjamin Barrett for Netflix's The Politician

Colorful oddities who still have an outside chance:

1. Craig T. Nelson and Wallace Shawn for CBS' Young Sheldon
2. David Pasquesi and Eric Allan Kramer for AMC's Lodge 49
3. Todd Grinnell, Stephen Tobolowsky and Marcel Ruiz for Pop's One Day at a Time
4. Michael McKean for FX's Breeders
5. Darren Barnet and Jaren Lewison for Netflix's Never Have I Ever
6. BD Wong and Bowen Yang for Comedy Central's Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens
7. Fred Armisen and José Pablo Minor for HBO's Los Espookys
8. Blair Underwood, Brandon Bell and Marque Richardson for Netflix's Dear White People
9. Luka Jones and John Cameron Mitchell for Hulu's Shrill
10. Rob Corddry and Omar Miller for CBS' The Unicorn
11. Sam Elliott for Netflix's The Ranch
12. Joaquín Cosío for Netflix's Gentefied
13. Nik Dodani and Graham Rogers for Netflix's Atypical
14. Diallo Riddle for IFC's Sherman's Showcase
15. Theo Germaine for Showtime's Work in Progress

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my choices? Let me know in the comments below!