While last year’s Emmy race for Best Comedy Series was an easy get for “Ted Lasso,” this year is looking to be much more competitive. In fact, our 17 Experts are split four ways, with Apple TV Plus’ “Ted Lasso,” HBO Max’s “Hacks,” HBO’s “Barry” and FX’s “Atlanta” all being predicted by one or more of them. Gold Derby’s Emmy Experts are journalists from major media outlets who cover television and/or the awards season. See their individual predictions right here.
Far out front is “Ted Lasso,” with these 11 Experts predicting it will win for the second year in a row: Anne Thompson (Indiewire), Eric Deggans (NPR), Jazz Tangcay (Variety), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Kelly Lawler (USA Today), Matt Roush (TV Guide Magazine), Peter Travers (ABC), Susan King (Gold Derby), Susan Wloszczyna (Gold Derby), Thelma Adams (Gold Derby) and Wilson Morales (BlackFilmandTV). If these pundits are right, that would make the feel-good sports show the first comedy series since “Modern Family” to win for Season 1 and Season 2.
SEE The Emmy race between ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Hacks’ is closer than you think
Next in line with the support of these four Emmy Experts is “Hacks”: Christopher Rosen (Gold Derby), Clayton Davis (Variety), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby) and Matthew Jacobs (Thrillist). “Hacks” tells the story of a struggling Las Vegas comedian (played by Jean Smart) and the young writer (played by Hannah Einbinder) who’s assigned to reinvigorate her career. This show won the top Golden Globe for its first season, while its second season just concluded earlier this month.
Finally, Ben Travers (Indiewire) thinks “Barry” will prevail, while Shawn Edwards (WDAF-TV Fox) goes out on a limb for “Atlanta.” These two shows returned to the airwaves this spring after multi-year breaks and continued the stories of a hitman-turned-actor (Bill Hader) and a rap star’s manager (Donald Glover), respectively. Both leading men recently won Best Comedy Actor trophies for their roles: Glover in 2017 and Hader in 2018 and ’19; “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis triumphed last year.
Based on the Emmy rankings of our 17 Experts, the Top 8 nominees for Best Comedy Series will be the following: “Ted Lasso,” “Hacks,” “Barry,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Atlanta,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Reservation Dogs.”
In case you’re wondering, last year at this stage of the awards season, a whopping 30 of 32 Experts were predicting “Ted Lasso” would win, or about 94%. Comparatively, only 11 of 17 Experts, or roughly 65%, are predicting it now. That means we have ourselves a real Emmy race on our hands in 2022. Giddyup!
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