Will ‘Saturday Night Live’ make an Emmy comeback in the guest categories?

Joyce Eng
Updated ·4 min read
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The comedy guest Emmy categories have been “Saturday Night Live’s” domain since the sketch series was first allowed to compete there in 2009. It has won 14 awards since then, seven in each category, but last year was one of the rare ones in which “SNL” failed to win either award — and wasn’t even nominated for one of them. Can it rebound this year?

2022 marked just the fourth time “SNL” went home empty-handed in guest after Nathan Lane took Best Comedy Guest Actor for “Only Murders in the Building,” winning his first Primetime Emmy in seven bids, and “Hacks'” Laurie Metcalf nabbed Best Comedy Guest Actress for her first Emmy in 28 years. The first instance occurred in 2013 when the awards went to Bob Newhart (“The Big Bang Theory”) and Melissa Leo (“Louie”) prevailed, with the former winning his long overdue inaugural Emmy. In 2015, Bradley Whitford (“Transparent”) and Joan Cusack (“Shameless”) prevailed, and in 2019, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” doubled up with victories for Luke Kirby and Jane Lynch.

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Here are all of “SNL’s” guest wins:

2009: Justin Timberlake, Tina Fey
2010: Betty White
2011: Justin Timberlake
2012: Jimmy Fallon
2014: Jimmy Fallon
2016: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (shared)
2017: Dave Chappelle, Melissa McCarthy
2018: Tiffany Haddish
2020: Eddie Murphy, Maya Rudolph
2021: Dave Chappelle, Maya Rudolph

SEE ‘Saturday Night Live’ seeks to continue this 9-year-long Emmy streak

At the moment, “SNL” is expected to get blanked again. The highest it’s ranked is second in both categories, and funnily enough, the hopefuls are all contending in comedy lead for their own shows and are trailing their shows’ guest stars in the guest races. Steve Martin and Martin Short, who co-hosted “SNL” in December and are gunning for a shared win a la Fey and Poehler, are behind defending champ Lane, who’s seeking a second trophy for “Only Murders.” And Quinta Brunson, who hosted “SNL” earlier this month, is currently No. 2 to her “Abbott Elementary” mom Taraji P. Henson.

Of the two categories, “SNL” is predicted to garner multiple nominations in just comedy guest actor. Pedro Pascal, who’s expected to earn a drama actor bid for “The Last of Us,” is in fifth place for his hosting stint, behind Kirby (“Maisel”) in third and Adrien Brody (“Poker Face”) in fourth; Leslie Odom Jr. (“Abbott Elementary”) is sixth. The comedy guest actress predicted lineup is rounded out by Judith Light (“Poker Face”), Cherry Jones (“Poker Face”), Shirley MacLaine (“Only Murders”) and Sarah Niles (“Ted Lasso”), with the next highest “SNL” contender, Molly Shannon, in 10th place.

“SNL” has a lot of high-profile names in contention, including “Wednesday’s” Jenna Ortega (26th), “The White Lotus'” Aubrey Plaza (20th), Oscar nominee Austin Butler (23rd) and Chappelle once again (ninth). But perhaps there are more “SNL” hopefuls on the outside looking in right now because the long-running series had a dramatic Emmy downturn last year. And we’re not just talking about the lack of guest wins. “SNL” went from 21 nominations in 2021 to just nine in 2022. It was also its worst guest showing yet as it was the first time “SNL” received only one guest acting nomination across both categories (for Jerrod Carmichael), having failed to crack the actress field.

Are voters over “SNL”? It can take solace in the fact that it’s never gone two years in a row with no guest wins, but there’s also a first time for everything.

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