Don’t underestimate Emmy fave Holland Taylor (‘The Morning Show’) in Best Drama Supporting Actress

Cybil Reynolds may have experienced an epic downfall in “The Morning Show’s” third season, but the woman who plays her can’t stop rising in our Emmy odds. After hovering right outside the Top 8 in February and for the majority of March, Holland Taylor recently vaulted into eighth place in our Best Drama Supporting Actress rankings. And if you haven’t added her to your own predictions yet, you might want to change that ASAP.

Though “The Morning Show” is still in search of its first drama series nomination at the Emmys, it’s already proven to be a juggernaut in the acting categories. Across its first two seasons, the Apple TV Plus drama has scooped up a total of eight acting bids — five for Season 1 (Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass and Martin Short) and three for Season 2 (Reese Witherspoon, Marcia Gay Harden and Crudup) — and a win for Crudup in Best Drama Supporting Actor (2020).

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With a ton of heavy-hitters ineligible this year — including all of last year’s Best Drama Series lineup with the exception of “The Crown” — “The Morning Show” is well positioned to not just retain but perhaps even increase its dominance in the acting races. At the moment, our odds, which don’t yet account for the guest categories, are forecasting the latter scenario as they have the topical series landing eight acting mentions. Those include two for Aniston and Witherspoon in Best Drama Actress and three for Crudup, Duplass and Season 3 addition Jon Hamm in Best Drama Supporting Actor.

SEEEmmy Experts predict Jennifer Aniston (‘The Morning Show’) will win Best Drama Actress

The other three nominations are expected to come from the Best Drama Supporting Actress category, with Greta Lee (fourth place) and Nicole Beharie (seventh place) sitting alongside Taylor in our predicted lineup. And you definitely shouldn’t be surprised if the show even rakes in bids beyond that in this race as Karen Pittman (ninth place) and Julianna Margulies (11th place) are also eligible and shouldn’t be counted out.

Should “The Morning Show” indeed expand in the acting races, Taylor may be the best positioned of its supporting actress contenders to reap the benefits thereof. Whereas Beharie, Lee and Pittman would all be first-time nominees if they snagged nominations, Taylor already has eight bids, including a surprise citation for her supporting turn on the limited series “Hollywood” (2020), and a victory for “The Practice” (1999) in this category under her belt. So suffice it to say, she’s already a familiar name to voters.

Most importantly, though, while she isn’t in a whole lot of “The Morning Show’s” third season, she has a killer showcase in the third episode that could help her stand out to voters. After an email of Cybil’s leaks amid a major cyber hack at UBA in which she makes racist remarks about new “TMS” co-host Chris Hunter (Beharie), she sparks an intense media storm. Hoping to calm it and salvage her reputation, she agrees to partake in a live interview hosted by none other than Chris herself. But to the surprise of no one, she completely flubs the interview, making circumstances even worse for herself and UBA at large. This causes the UBA board to take a vote of no confidence and ultimately remove Cybil from her position as chairman.

SEE Why ‘The Morning Show’ has its best shot yet at earning a drama series Emmy nomination

If you’re concerned about Taylor potentially splitting the vote with her co-stars now that the Emmys have switched back to the restricted ballot, remember that this ballot was already in place at the 2023 Emmys. While it, in theory, should block shows from dominating categories since voters can no longer check off as many names as they wish, it was unable to yield those results last year. After all, “Succession,” “The Last of Us” and “The White Lotus: Sicily” combined occupied 32 of 40 total spots in the acting categories, with the latter of the three taking up five of eight in Best Drama Supporting Actress. Why so? Because those series — the Top 3 nomination leaders across all fields — were clearly voters’ favorites and the restricted ballot didn’t stop TV academy members from filling the majority of their slots with them.

“The Morning Show” can now take advantage of these voting habits as it’s primed to be a top drama series contender this year. Despite being left out of the top category for its first two seasons, the show is currently in second place in our Best Drama Series odds, trailing only “The Crown.” Considering it’s earned a total of 11 nominations to date, including one for Best Drama Directing for Season 1, it probably missed the series lineup by just a hair both times it was eligible. Arguably its biggest obstacle up until now has been that it’s had to go up against stacked competition. So now that the field has completely emptied out, it shouldn’t have a problem making the cut.

Not only that, but as one of very few 2024 drama series contenders besides “The Crown” that voters have already embraced in recent history, “The Morning Show” may become a default pick for voters across the board as they look to fill the many vacancies in the drama series categories. If it does, resulting in a major uptick in nominations for the show, it shouldn’t come as breaking news to anyone if Taylor winds up with her ninth bid on July 17.

PREDICT the 2024 Emmy nominees through July 17

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