A Jennifer Coolidge (‘The White Lotus: Sicily’) win at the SAG Awards would mark a rare drama actress hat trick

At the Screen Actors Guild Awards, lead performances usually dominate the TV categories. But the tide has been turning over in the drama actress race, where in the past two years, the guild has rewarded two different featured players — Gillian Anderson (“The Crown”) and Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”) — who both competed at other awards shows in supporting. If the trophy this year goes to another supporting performer, as it seems likely to do, those three consecutive victories will be a first in this category in the history of the ceremony.

That supporting performer is, of course, Jennifer Coolidge from “The White Lotus: Sicily,” who has a commanding lead in our current combined odds. She is out front of our No. 2, Zendaya (“Euphoria”), by almost 1,000 predictors, even though Zendaya just took home her second Best Drama Actress Emmy and competes at SAG for the very first time. Our Experts are almost entirely all in on the “White Lotus” standout, with 11 of the 13 picking her to prevail. Our editors are even more sure, with all 11 backing her for her hilarious and ultimately tragic arc in the second season of the HBO anthology series.

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WATCH our exclusive video interview with Jennifer Coolidge, ‘The White Lotus: Sicily’

Despite the clear advantage she has amongst prognosticators, this is somewhat uncharted waters for Coolidge, who has only competed in a drama category for “The White Lotus” once before. At last month’s Critics Choice Awards, she did take home the drama supporting actress prize — besting her SAG competitor Julia Garner (“Ozark”) — but she didn’t have to face either Zendaya or Laura Linney (“Ozark”). A week prior at the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association kept “Sicily” in the limited categories, where she won in supporting; Zendaya and Garner won the drama lead and supporting races, respectively.

If Coolidge does pull off the win, it will mark a rare three-peat of supporting actresses taking home this catch-all drama actress prize. Beyond Anderson and Jung, this trophy has only ever gone to five other supporting actresses. They include Maggie Smith for “Downton Abbey” (2014); Jessica Lange for the first installment of “American Horror Story” (2012), for which she won in the limited series supporting category at the Emmys; Chandra Wilson (2007) and Sandra Oh (2006) for “Grey’s Anatomy;” and Allison Janney (2001) for “The West Wing,” prior to her switching categories at the Emmys to lead actress. Julianna Margulies won two for “ER” in 1998 and 1999, but those victories were after she had bumped up her category placement to lead.

SEE TV trophy magnets Jennifer Coolidge and Zendaya set for unprecedented SAG Awards showdown

More often than not, this category is dominated by lead (and repeat) winners. Since the first ceremony, drama actress has gone to Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences,” 1995), Anderson (“The X-Files,” 1996-97), Margulies (“ER,” 1998-99), Edie Falco (“The Sopranos,” 2000, 2003, 2007), Janney (“The West Wing,” 2002), Frances Conroy (“Six Feet Under,” 2004), Jennifer Garner (“Alias,” 2005), Sally Field (“Brothers & Sister,” 2009), Margulies (“The Good Wife,” 2010-11), Claire Danes (“Homeland,” 2013), Viola Davis (“How to Get Away with Murder,” 2015-16), Claire Foy (“The Crown,” 2016-17), Oh (“Killing Eve,” 2019), and Jennifer Aniston (“The Morning Show,” 2020).

Given the recent proclivity of SAG voters to reward supporting performances, might we be underestimating a surprise upset win by Garner? Although she has co-star Linney to contend with — and Coolidge just bested her at Critics Choice — she has proven unstoppable at the Emmys with three wins (including for the final season) and pulled off an upset victory at the Globes, where she ranked fourth in our overall odds. Two of our top 24 users think she could do it. Tanya McQuoid best not underestimate Ruth Langmore.

PREDICTthe 2023 SAG Awards winners by Feb. 26

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

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