I’m predicting Christina Applegate will win the comedy actress Emmy
It’s no secret that Christina Applegate is suffering these days. Her multiple sclerosis symptoms make everything difficult. As she told Vanity Fair in May, “With the disease of MS, it’s never a good day. You just have little shitty days. People are like, ‘Well, why don’t you take more showers?’ Well, because getting in the shower is frightening. You can fall, you can slip, your legs can buckle. Especially because I have a glass shower. It’s frightening to me to get in there. There are just certain things that people take for granted in their lives that I took for granted. Going down the stairs, carrying things—you can’t do that anymore. It f-ing sucks. I can still drive my car short distances. I can bring up food to my kid. Up, never down.”
She continued, “Yeah, and gravity can just pull you down and take everything down with you. So we have this little thing at the top of the stairs that we call ‘purgatory.’ So if anyone’s done with anything upstairs, we put it in purgatory so one of my able friends can bring it downstairs.”
This is a woman who has endured an awful lot of medical travail in her adult life. At 36, she had a prophylactic double mastectomy after finding a tumor in one breast and testing positive for the BRCA-1 breast cancer gene mutation, which elevated her risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Now she’s 51 and struggling just to get through the day with her body and sanity intact. It isn’t fair, but no one said life was.
One of the bright spots in Applegate’s struggle the past three years has been Applegate’s work as co-star and executive producer of the Netflix dark comedy series “” that’s earned her four Emmy nominations – one for top comedy and three for lead actress in a comedy for her portrayal of Jen Harding opposite her beloved co-star Linda Cardellini. She’s now logged eight Emmy nominations all told, winning only for her first as guest comedy actress in 2003 for “Friends.”
No one can say that Applegate hasn’t paid her dues, and she’s more than overdue to be shown some awards season love in the form of a second win – 20 years later – for lead comedy actress for the final season of “Dead to Me.” She’s not the runaway Gold Derby favorite. Quinta Brunson is, for the underperforming-in-the-nominations ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary” with combined odds of 10/3. Next is Rachel Brosnahan for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” at 19/5, followed by Applegate at 4/1, Jenna Ortega for “Wednesday” at 9/2 and Natasha Lyonne for “Poker Face,” also with racetrack odds of 9/2.
The good news for all of this year’s nominees in the category is that a lady named Jean Smart, who won here for “Hacks” two years running, isn’t eligible this year due to a lack of qualifying episodes. So let’s do a quick and completely biased overview of each nominee’s chances:
- Brunson: She won last year at the Emmys for comedy writing, and that’s honestly her strength. She’s a good actress, but honestly no better than fourth or fifth best in her own cast behind last year’s supporting victor Sheryl Lee Ralph, the highly underrated Janelle James, Tyler James Williams and Lisa Ann Walter. Given that “Abbott” didn’t even earn a writing bid this year, it doesn’t bode well for Quinta’s chances. It’s possible for someone to win for writing in one year and then performing the next – heck, Tina Fey won them both the same year (2008) for “30 Rock”- but I don’t think it’s likely. The show seems to have lost too much of its momentum.
- Brosnahan: I see her as Applegate’s greatest competition in the race. She already for “Mrs. Maisel’s” first season (2018), and though she’s lost three times since, there is plenty of precedent for winning in a show’s swan song season. She’d be the ninth leading lady on a comedy series to collect an Emmy for her final year in the role. The others: Phoebe Waller-Bridge for “Fleabag” in 2019, Catherine O’Hara for “Schitt’s Creek” in 2020, Sarah Jessica-Parker for “Sex and the City” in 2004, Helen Hunt for “Mad About You” in 1999, Hope Lange for “The Ghost & Mrs. Muir” in 1970, Lucille Ball for “The Lucy Show” in 1968, Mary Tyler Moore for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in 1966, and Jane Wyatt for “Father Knows Best” in 1960.
- Applegate: She has a long and impressive career history in TV comedy, also including 11 seasons on “Married, with Children” as well as multiple-season lead roles in “Jesse,” “Up All Night” and “Samantha Who?”. She’s been nominated multiple times for the Critics Choice, SAG Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Gold Derby Awards, always coming away empty-handed. It’s time that changes, even though it’ll be nearly 14 months since the “Dead to Me” finale premiered by the time the postponed Primetime Emmys are finally scheduled to take place in January.
- Ortega: It’s her first Emmy nomination. She’s wildly talented and terrific on Wednesday, but she’ll barely be old enough to drink on Emmy night (turning 21 on September 27). She’ll have plenty of opportunities ahead of her. This isn’t the one.
- Lyonne: A dark horse in the race who is incredibly good on “Poker Face” and who has four previous Emmy noms, including three for “Russian Doll” in 2019 and a comedy guest bid in 2014 for “Orange is the New Black.” But her nomination is for the first year of a show that not a lot of people know exists, given that it streamed on the still-emerging Peacock. All of that said, she’s an upset contender for sure, given how much she’s beloved as a performer.
How much will sentiment come into play when it comes to Applegate’s chances? Possibly a lot. Possibly only a little. With TV academy voters, you can never know for sure. But I do know they’re voting right now, and I’m hoping they think about just how much Christina Applegate deserves this recognition at this time and for this role. I’m also hoping they consider just how moving and magical the moment would be if she were to win as a veteran performer who would require assistance getting down the stairs onstage.
It would be a great big loving embrace for an actress who understands what it’s like to overcome adversity, not to mention the poignance and urgency her current condition entails. But if she does win as I suspect she will;, it won’t be a matter of charity. It’ll be because nobody was better than her.
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