Emmy Predictions 2020 - Who Will Likely Be Nominated for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series?

From July 2 to July 13, 2020, voting took place for The 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. As such, it's fun to look at which actors and shows have the best chances of actually being nominated this year. So, these are my predictions for who will be nominated for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

2019 Nominees:

        Jane Lynch for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (WINNER)
        Sandra Oh for NBC's Saturday Night Live
        Maya Rudolph for NBC's The Good Place
        Kristin Scott Thomas for Amazon's Fleabag
        Fiona Shaw for Amazon's Fleabag
        Emma Thompson for NBC's Saturday Night Live

NBC's Saturday Night Live is always a dominant force in the guest acting categories. Curiously though, only three actresses were submitted for the late night variety show - Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Scarlett Johansson and Maya Rudolph. That could better consolidate support around them. However, Waller-Bridge may be the only nominee. That would be shocking for a show that typically does well here. Waller-Bridge has the edge because she won three Emmys a year ago for writing, producing and acting in Fleabag. Meanwhile, Rudolph probably has better odds of getting nominated again for The Good Place. That has become a perennial nomination for her. Elsewhere, Wanda Sykes has continually gotten nominated for Black-ish. She isn't on the ballot for that show but she is for her brief appearance on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. As such, she should be seen as a major player in this race as well. However, this field is incredibly open. This may be the category that sees support for The Politician thanks to Judith Light and Bette Midler. They are awards favorites. Will their names be enough to overcome appearing in a lackluster series? It's unclear. It could happen. One shouldn't be surprised if it doesn't though. Curb Your Enthusiasm, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Space Force and Will & Grace have nominees who have certainly done well in the past. But again, it's hard to see much enthusiasm in the category at the moment. Once the nominees are decided, it should heat up. Right now though, the nominations just need to be announced to see if one particular series has any momentum at all.

For the 2020 awards ceremony, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences decided to tie the number of nominations to the number of submissions in each category. For Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, 116 actresses were eligible on the ballot. That will translate to six nominees in this category.

Actors most likely to be nominated:

1. Phoebe Waller-Bridge for NBC's Saturday Night Live
2. Maya Rudolph for NBC's The Good Place
3. Wanda Sykes for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
4. Lisa Kudrow for NBC's The Good Place
5. Jane Krakowski for HBO's Curb You Enthusiasm
6. Angela Bassett for HBO's A Black Lady Sketch Show

Serious threats that could break through:

1. Judith Light, Bette Midler and January Jones for Netflix's The Politician
2. Scarlett Johansson and Maya Rudolph for NBC's Saturday Night Live
3. Jane Lynch and Kaitlin Olson for Netflix's Space Force
4. Allison Janney and Kathleen Turner for Netflix's The Kominsky Method
5. Laverne Cox, Isla Fisher, Abbi Jacobson and Kaitlin Olson for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm
6. Tina Fey, Cristin Milioti, Caitlin McGee and Sarita Choudhury for Amazon's Modern Love
7. Laverne Cox, Patti LaBelle, Nicole Byer, Aja Naomi King and Natasha Rothwell for HBO's A Black Lady Sketch Show
8. Bernadette Peters for NBC's Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
9. Blythe Danner, Minnie Driver, Molly Shannon, Billie Lourd, Demi Lovato, Vanessa Bayer and Yvette Nicole Brown for NBC's Will & Grace

Some considerable long-shots:

1. Carol Burnett, Cloris Leachman and Jean Smart for Spectrum's Mad About You
2. Loretta Devine for ABC's Black-ish
3. Jennifer Nettles for HBO's The Righteous Gemstones
4. Cristin Milioti for AppleTV+'s Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet
5. Margot Robbie for Hulu's Dollface
6. Vanessa Bayer and Nicole Byer for NBC's Brooklyn Nine-Nine
7. Zosia Mamet for AppleTV+'s Dickinson
8. Melissa McCarthy for CBS' The Late Late Show with James Corden
9. Brie Larson for ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!
10. Angela Lin and Mélanie Laurent for AppleTV+'s Little America

Colorful oddities who still have an outside chance:

1. Laverne Cox and Yvette Nicole Brown for Netflix's Dear White People
2. Phoebe Waller-Bridge for HBO's Run
3. Dulcé Sloan and Desi Lydic for Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
4. Reba McEntire for CBS' Young Sheldon
5. Ariana Grande for Showtime's Kidding
6. Tiffany Haddish for TBS' The Last O.G.
7. Sara Gilbert for Netflix's Atypical
8. Jackée Harry for Netflix's Family Reunion
9. Estelle Parsons for ABC's The Conners
10. Katie Finneran for IFC's Brockmire

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my choices? Let me know in the comments below!