Image Credit: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC; Martin Segal/Showtime; Adam Larkey/ABC; Mitchell Haaseth/NBC; Paul Drinkwater/NBCHey, Emmy voters, it’s me again! We’re nearing the homestretch. We just have six more categories to get through, including the two below — lead actor and actress in a comedy. (My suggestions for lead actor and actress in a drama will be posted later this afternoon, followed by outstanding comedy series and drama series tomorrow.) To recap: Use this list of recommendations as your guide when the balloting process begins next week. Nods are announced July 8 — don’t let me down!
Best Lead Actress (Comedy)
* Courteney Cox (Cougar Town): At last, a role as good as, if not better than, Monica.
* Portia de Rossi (Better Off Ted): Her ice queen was headed for legendary status. Damn you, cancellation!
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine): The best revenge for having your show axed? Emmy!
* Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie): Carmela who?
* Tina Fey (30 Rock): She’s what keeps us from declaring the rare off episode a deal breaker.
* Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation): Makes Leslie as endearing as she is daffy. And she’s REALLY daffy.
Best Lead Actor (Comedy)
* Alec Baldwin (30 Rock): There’s a reason he already has two of these under his belt.
* Steve Carell (The Office): Dunder Mifflin’s bad times brought out the best in Michael and his portrayer. (See “Murder” for more.)
* Jay Harrington (Better Off Ted): The funniest performance no one (with a Nielsen box) watched.
* Zachary Levi (Chuck): He epitomized a new kind of superhero: Everyman!
* Joel McHale (Community): Made an honor role of his snarky underachiever.
* Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory): What could’ve descended into shtick ascended into madness.
Agree/disagree with my picks? Consider the comments section below your own personal Dream Emmy Ballot.
Coming up later today: Lead Actor and Actress (drama)
My Dream Emmy Nominations part 1: Best Supporting Actor and Actress (comedy)
My Dream Emmy Nominations part 2: Best supporting Actor and Actress (drama)
Damn that Lead Actress category is ridiculously strong. I could think of like twice as many people worthy of a nomination, but wouldn’t really want to deny anyone in your dream list. Way to go, TV this year!
Courtney Cox is criminally overdue! Give her that Emmy!
Definitely agree…Courteney deserved an Emmy for her work on Friends…at least during the Chandler/Monica romance…she was brillant during that time, and she is just (or more) brillant in Cougar Town.
Agree! And since when is Nurse Jackie a comedy?????
Nurse Jackie is snarky, darkly sarcastic comedy at it’s best!!
more of a dramedy….just like weeds and us of tara… so those shows fall into comedy in these cases
Amy Poehler is great in Parks and Recreation. She is the only government employer who is THAT into their job, taking it much more seriously than anyone else does. And she isn’t an idiot, either. Last year, the producers tried to maker her a female Micheal Scott and wisely switched it up the second season. Excellent show. Along with Community, the best of Thurs. nights on NBC.
Damn that Lead Actress category is ridiculously strong. I could think of like twice as many people worthy of a nomination, but wouldn’t really want to deny anyone in your dream list. Way to go, TV this year!
Courtney Cox is criminally overdue! Give her that Emmy!
agree with both of you! the actress category is very strong, But Courtney is so overdue its sick, it is her year
Definitely agree…Courteney deserved an Emmy for her work on Friends…at least during the Chandler/Monica romance…she was brillant during that time, and she is just (or more) brillant in Cougar Town.
Agree! And since when is Nurse Jackie a comedy?????
Nurse Jackie is snarky, darkly sarcastic comedy at it’s best!!
more of a dramedy….just like weeds and us of tara… so those shows fall into comedy in these cases
Amy Poehler is great in Parks and Recreation. She is the only government employer who is THAT into their job, taking it much more seriously than anyone else does. And she isn’t an idiot, either. Last year, the producers tried to maker her a female Micheal Scott and wisely switched it up the second season. Excellent show. Along with Community, the best of Thurs. nights on NBC.
HELL NO on Courteney Cox.
shut up!
Im sure you dont even watch CougarTown and you have the wrong idea about what it is.
it’s a killer comedy!
and Courteney delivers so perfectly in it.
they actually give her material and great lines unlike on Friends!
Agreed with ali!
oh and the best line! “i carved a ‘t’ after your boyfriend wrote die bitch on my island in my kitchen. So now it says diet bitch, it really helps.”
Sorry, Cougar Town is terrible. Cox has terrible comedic timing. The only thing about the show that isn’t terrible is the kid who plays Cox’s son. Outside of that, it’s an embarrassment for all involved. And yes, I’ve seen it. I get stuck watching it because of the other half.
You must have TERRIBLE taste.
Nope, he must have good taste. Cougar Town has the worst representations of women on television right now. It’s not funny, everyone is hysterical all the time and the portrayal of women is actually offensive.
:::eyeroll:::
amy, you should DEFINITELY take yourself more seriously.
Amy’s right…well in one way. I’ve never watched cougar town so I don’t know if the show perpetuates negative ideas about women, but if it does, as a piece of pop culture it will affect our own ideas about women too, however subtly. So she is NOT taking herself too seriously.
I think it’s fair to criticize a show for protraying women in a negative light, especially when it presents itself as the oppositie… That said I don’t mind the show. My problem is that it gives morality lessons each week and sometimes those lessons are brutal.
The only way one might take offense to the way the women on Cougar Town are portrayed is if they fit into one of those categories and are ashamed of it themselves. The show portrays men in just as negative a light. One of the things so many people miss about the show is the fact taht they take typical stereotypes of people in general (male and female) and mock how ridiculous it is. That’s it. Get over it.
I couldn’t agree more!!! Cougar Town is awful.
Can’t we all be right? Cougar Town is a horrible show — started out with promise but then plunged downhill. But Courtney Cox really gives it her all on the show.
@ commenter, that’s not nice to say about the mans other half!!!
are all the amys talking to the first amy??
Hell YES and to everyone else on that show. It’s fantastic. Everyone on it is perfection
HELL YEAH to C.C. She’s perfect as Jules!
Courtney Cox’s bad acting is the one thing that stops Cougar Town from being an enjoyable show. The supporting players are deserving; Cox shouldn’t be a consideration even in a weak year, much less a strong one like this.
thank you for not including matthew morrison. he’s been disappointingly awful when they’ve only given him a few lines. I remember them all as the same overly-dramatic and gag inducing lines somewhere along hte lines of “this is important and i’m great.” i think he can do better and i wish someone would tell him to try a little harder.
HELL NO on Courteney Cox.
That’s a fair enough dream ballot…. personally I would’ve included Toni Collette for her amazing work on United States of Tara.
I agree, replace her for Courtney Cox or Tina Fey. Love Tina, but she’s not top 5 as an actress. Writer yes, but no actress.
I agree. She makes so many subtle transformations from Alice to Buck to T to Tara, etc. It’s kind of crazy how talented she is.
AGREED! Tony Collette is awesome and deserves some love! I mean, a show about a woman with multiple personalities.. how cheesy and unrealistic does that sound? Toni Collette makes it work!! I can’t believe how cute and awesome United States of Tara is. More people should watch it!
while i do like the show i just thought i’d point out that split personality disorder IS a real mental illness and while it might be “cheesy” at times it’s not “unrealistic”. other than that i totally agree with you.
I so agree with the Better Off Ted nominees. I can’t believe they cancelled one of my favorite shows!!
me neither
Agreed. It was the best show!
Better Off Ted was a favorite of mine as well. Loved Portia, Jay, Andrea, and the lab rats. It was heartfelt, sad, funny, and outlandish at the same time. An Arrested Development for those with a half hour attention span… In any case, ABC should have cut a few loser shows loose and left room for both Better Off Ted and Samantha Who?.
Such a disappointment it’s gone – it will be sadly missed. And since cancelled shows rarely get Emmy nominations, I hope that if it gets only one token nod, it goes to the superb Portia De Rossi.
Yes!! The whole cast was great but Portia was awesome!
I like the nominations for Better off Ted too. I would love to see both of them win. Such a great show! And because of this cancellation and now that Lost is gone I can say that I will only be watching 3 hours of their scheduled programming. I don’t plan on watching anything new that they put on until they get a clue and keep and stop their cancel happy ways.
Better off Ted? Really?… That show is just trying too hard and the performances are stale. Please don’t put it in ‘Arrested Development’ territory… ‘P&R’ on the other hand is awesome. I’ll be cheering for Leslie and Ron to pick up awards.
Phil and Lem are the best comedy couple ever. LOVE THEM! So sad this show was canceled and so MAD at ABC for doing it. >:(
I personally don’t think Portia De Rossi would merit an Emmy nomination, but Jay Harrington should for sure be on the shortlist.
I’d really like Jason Schwartzman from Bored To Death to earn a nomination for Best Actor (Comedy).
I think she deserves one, but as Supporting.
I concur – and wow – she’s great!
i would love a nod for schwartzman (lead) or dansen (supporting). bored to death is great. also, better off ted deserves some love, another show canceled way before its time.
everything about BBT is shtick.
I was thinking this statement. Sheldon and all of his situations are completely shtick. He lost me this season…I was on board with him last season though.
I have to say, i don’t understand all the affection for Big Bang Theory. I think it’s mean-spirited.
Yes to Zachary Levi!
a thousand yeses to Zachary Levi please!
What they said. Levi is da bomb!
Yesss Zach!!
Levi makes Chuck happen! It’s hard to be that funny and yet be the warm heart of the show on a realistic level at the same time…
I couldn’t agree more-Chuck rules!
Great list. The Lead Actress list is perfect.
Ed O’Neill??
O’Neill’s submitting for supporting this year.
Because Ed knows he wouldn’t stand a chance in the Lead Actor category up against perennial nominees like Alec Baldwin and Steve Carrell.
Or because the cast of Modern Family all submitted in the supporting category so none of them would be portrayed as “lead”…
The guy who plays Phil is a genius, I like him over O’Neil
They should just give Jim Parsons the Emmy, forget the nominations. That guy is the best!
Agree! And the show is the best, too.
Porita! Portia! Portia!
funny!
it’s only funny because it’s true.
I would really love to see Zach Levi get a nod, and a win. I love Jim Parsons, but Zach really blows me away. I honestly love the character of chuck more then anything else on tv right now, he can tap into so much in one episode.
I agree! Jim is awesome and totally deserved the Emmy last year. I think he needs to win this year, but Zach needs to be nominated. Buoth of them are brilliant either way!
Such a shame that Zac will never even get nominated yet alone win. Pisses me off so much!