Emmy mystery solved: How often do the deaths of characters lead to wins?

If you’re not caught up on your peak TV viewing, consider this your spoiler warning. Four months have passed since Jennifer Coolidge bagged her second consecutive Emmy for “The White Lotus” and thus became the eighth drama or comedy series regular honored by the TV academy for a season in which her character died. Emmy nominations of this kind have become quite common in recent years, and it’s possible that over 15% of the 2024 lead and supporting continuing series contenders will be added to the list.

The current consensus among more than 2,400 Gold Derby users is that five continuing series performers whose characters perished within the past year will receive Emmy nominations, while a few others have outside shots at recognition. This does not include characters like Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen, “Ahsoka”) who died before their shows’ latest seasons began but appear as ghosts or in flashbacks. Undead characters like most of those from “Ghosts” and “What We Do in the Shadows” also do not count here, nor do any whose deaths have not been explicitly confirmed, such as Ricky Martin’s Robert Diaz from “Palm Royale.”

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Unlike last year, when Bill Hader and Anthony Carrigan were both nominated for playing deceased characters on the comedy series “Barry,” there are no comedic possibilities for 2024. As one might expect, nominations involving dramatic character deaths are much more common, with the ratio currently standing at about 5-to-1. Aside from Hader and Carrigan, the only comedy regulars on the roster are McLean Stevenson (“M*A*S*H,” 1975), John Ritter (“8 Simple Rules,” 2004), Kathryn Joosten (“Desperate Housewives,” 2012), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Veep,” 2019), and William H. Macy (“Shameless,” 2021).

The sole lead performer among said five predicted 2024 nominees is Anna Sawai (“Shōgun”), who would make history as her category’s first portrayer of a character who died during her show’s inaugural season. The same general statistic also applies to lead male hopeful Nathan Fielder (“The Curse”), who will have been preceded in that regard by Anthony Hopkins (“Westworld,” 2017) and Jonathan Majors (“Lovecraft Country,” 2021). The most recent drama lead example overall is Brian Cox (“Succession,” 2023), while the only winner in the subset is Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad,” 2014).

The largest share of dead character nominations are associated with dramatic supporting males, and that list is expected to soon feature 20 entrants with the additions of Khalid Abdalla (“The Crown”) and Tadanobu Asano (“Shōgun”). This subgroup was established in 1984 when Michael Conrad picked up a posthumous bid for the fourth season of “Hill Street Blues.” Its latest members are “Squid Game” (2022) actors Oh Yeong-su and Park Hae-soo, with its three victors being Joe Pantoliano (“The Sopranos,” 2003), Željko Ivanek (“Damages,” 2008), and Bobby Cannavale (“Boardwalk Empire,” 2013).

Coolidge was the fourth drama supporting actress champion whose character had recently died, following Drea de Matteo (“The Sopranos,” 2004), Margo Martindale (“Justified,” 2011), and Julia Garner (“Ozark,” 2022). Elizabeth Debicki (“The Crown”) is widely expected to continue the trend of such wins this year, with one of her predicted challengers being her own cast mate and fellow deceased character portrayer Lesley Manville.

Since the overall list of Emmy-nominated performances involving character deaths has gained 13 new examples in the last three years alone, one can reasonably assume there will be more cases this year, especially given the perceived across-the-board strength of “Shōgun” and “The Crown.” At this point, one can practically count on seeing at least one such tribute to a departed character at each annual Emmys ceremony.

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