Emmys history favors nominations for both of the ‘White House Plumbers’ leading men

The White House Plumbers (accidentally) took down the presidency, but can Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux take down their Emmy competition? The “White House Plumbers” stars are both contending in Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actor, but only Harrelson is currently predicted to earn a nomination at the moment, sitting in fourth place, while Theroux is in ninth. If you’re predicting just one of them, you might want to reconsider that because this category is kinder to double noms than you might think.

Since 2000, there have been 10 projects that have fielded a pair of nominees in limited series/TV movie actor. And half of them hailed from HBO, home to “White House Plumbers” as well. In 2004, “Something the Lord Made” nabbed bids for Mos Def and Alan Rickman. Four years later, “Recount” stars Kevin Spacey and Tom Wilkinson faced off. The trend really took off in the 2010s, during which the first five years featured co-star nominees: 2010’s “The Special Relationship” (Dennis Quaid and Michael Sheen), 2011’s “The Kennedys” (Greg Kinnear and Barry Pepper), 2012’s “Hatfields & McCoys” (Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton), 2013’s “Behind the Candelabra” (Matt Damon and Michael Douglas) and 2014’s “Fargo” (Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton). Pepper, Costner and Douglas all won.

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After a one-year break, Courtney B. Vance defeated his “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” co-star Cuba Gooding Jr. in 2016. “The Night Of’s” Riz Ahmed then triumphed over his TV lawyer John Turturro in 2017. Most recently, “Hamilton” produced noms for Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr. in 2021.

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Clearly, there’s no aversion to double lead noms here like there is, say, at the Oscars, where the last film to receive two Best Actor nominations was 1984’s “Amadeus.” It also helps that a lot of TV projects, like “White House Plumbers,” don’t split their co-leads and run one in supporting.

A five-episode series premiering Monday, May 1 at 9/8c, “White House Plumbers” is a satirical accounting of the events that led to the bungled Watergate burglary, masterminded by President Nixon‘s operatives E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux). Prior to the series’ premiere date announcement and trailer drop last week, Theroux was in 11th place, so he may crack the top six soon at this rate, and there’s still four weeks to go before the show debuts.

Harrelson has been safely ensconced in fourth place this whole time — behind Evan Peters (“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”), Taron Egerton (“Black Bird”) and Daniel Radcliffe (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”) — and has probably been predicted over Theroux because of his veteran status and lengthier Emmy history. A nine-time nominee, Harrelson has one win, for Best Comedy Supporting Actor for “Cheers” in 1989. However, Theroux actually has the better Emmy record. While he has never been nominated for acting, he is a three-time nominee and two-time winner as an executive producer on “Live in Front of a Studio Audience,” which won Best Variety Special (Live) in 2019 and 2020.

And though there hasn’t been much movement in the top six, it’d be wrong to say it’s fully locked. Radcliffe is competing for a TV movie, a format that’s fallen out of style (last year, Ben Foster was predicted to get in for the HBO film “The Survivor” but wound up snubbed). Michael Shannon (“George & Tammy”) and Steve Carell (“The Patient”) round out the top six, but both have been overshadowed awards-wise by their co-stars, Jessica Chastain and Domhnall Gleeson, respectively, so far (Gleeson is also in “White House Plumbers,” so he could get double noms in supporting actor). Carell snagged a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, but Shannon didn’t make the cut at any of the winter awards.

Sure, “White House Plumbers” could get lost amid the torrent of spring releases and the reintroduction of the restricted ballot could ice one of them out if voters feel forced to choose a favorite (though that also feels like something to deal with later when picking a winner). But if the show makes a splash, Harrelson and Theroux can easily plug up two spots.

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