Nathan Lane finally won his first Primetime Emmy Award after seven nominations last year, having taken Best Comedy Guest Actor honors for his stint on “Only Murders in the Building.” He’s in contention again for the Hulu murder mystery and could not only quickly double his hardware but become one of three people to win the category in consecutive years.
Mel Brooks and the late Jay Thomas are thus far the only men who have successfully defended their comedy guest actor titles. To be fair, not every guest winner or nominee is necessarily eligible the following year, but nonetheless, this is impressive. Thomas accomplished it first, prevailing in 1990 and ’91 for his turn as Jerry Gold, the talk show host and eventual love interest of Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen), on “Murphy Brown.” Brooks did one better and three-peated from 1997-99 for playing Paul Reiser‘s Uncle Phil on “Mad About You.” The legendary comedian holds the record for the most wins in the category as well.
SEE Nathan Lane wins long-awaited first Emmy for ‘Only Murders in the Building’
In the early odds, Lane is in first place ahead of, ironically, his “Only Murders” co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short, who are competing for their co-hosting stint on “Saturday Night Live.” The two, who are expected to again reap Best Comedy Actor bids for their day job, are looking to replicate the success Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had when they won Best Comedy Guest Actress in 2016 for co-hosting the sketch series. In third place is 2019 champ Luke Kirby (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), followed by Adrien Brody (“Poker Face”), Pedro Pascal (“SNL”) and Leslie Odom Jr. (“Abbott Elementary”).
Though he had fewer appearances in the second season, Lane was no less impactful. In the penultimate episode, “Sparring Partners,” which was also his final appearance of the season, Lane gets to do physical comedy when his character, deli king/dip enthusiast/former podcast sponsor/grave robber Teddy Dimas, fights with Oliver (Short) in an elevator after the latter learns that Teddy is his the biological father of his son, Will (Ryan Broussard). It culminates with the frenemies having a heart-to-heart about fathers and sons, and deciding to keep the truth about Will’s paternity a secret for his sake.
If Lane is able to nab a bookend trophy, he’ll be the sixth person to win exactly two comedy guest actor Emmys. Besides Thomas, the others are Tim Conway (“Coach,” 1996; “30 Rock,” 2008) and three “SNL” hosts, Justin Timberlake (2009, 2011), Jimmy Fallon (2012, 2014) and Dave Chappelle (2017, 2021), the last of whom hosted again this season and is in seventh place in the odds.
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