2015 Emmys: ‘Outlander,’ Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe, ‘Galavant’ win reader vote

The past month and a half has been a very busy, entertaining one here at CarterMatt, as we have yet again done our own annual preview for the Primetime Emmy Awards. We nominated some of our own personal nominees for given categories, and then had you pick some of your favorites to go along with it.

The first thing that we should say is a massive thanks to all those who voted! Hundreds of thousands of votes were cast across all articles since we first started this series, which makes this the most successful list of polls we’ve had in several years of CarterMatt history. The next time we’ll do something relatively similar to this is when we start to analyze the actual Emmy nominees tomorrow, and then we’ll usher in the CarterMatt Awards at the end of the year. Note that while the polls are still for the most part attached to their original articles, no further votes will count towards these results. Whether or not the Emmys choose to acknowledge these shows and performers listed below is ultimately up in the air; this should at least show that these are performers, hosts, and programs that voters should be taking a close look at in subsequent years.

We wish we had some real trophies to hand out as a result of all this, but we personally promise to hand out virtual high-fives on Twitter to any winner who requests one!

Drama Series – “Outlander.” Many of these results are going to be a battle between two shows, and this is the case here as “Sons of Anarchy” was the only nominee really close. With an impressive 66% of the vote, the Starz drama wins out … and as you are about to see, this is far from the only victory that the brilliant series is taking home today.

Drama Actor – Sam Heughan, “Outlander.” This was a pretty competitive category throughout, and while Sam and Jamie Dornan were the only two close to winning, Grant Gustin and Lee Pace had a respectable showing with thousands of votes. This category received more than 100,000 votes total, making it the biggest poll we have conducted so far in 2015.

Drama Actress – Caitriona Balfe, “Outlander.” Probably the most impressive feat of all for “Outlander” fans is this category since it was basically a write-in campaign, and therefore also the most difficult to tabulate in between gauging comments and individual poll results. Still, what we saw here was enough to push her narrowly past Gillian Anderson of “The Fall,” who had 30% of the polling vote in second place.

Drama Supporting Actor – Tobias Menzies, “Outlander.” Noticing a trend here? This was one of the closest results of the entire process, since only 7% laid between Menzies (who was sensational and terrifying this past season) and the second-place finisher Robin Lord Taylor of “Gotham.”

Drama Supporting Actress – Emily Kinney, “The Walking Dead.” The first category without an “Outlander” winner, Emily won with an impressive 45% of the vote after a great but sad arc in season 4.

Comedy Series – “Galavant.” It won with 48% of the vote, which makes us feel pretty great after coming up with a song explaining why people should vote for it in the same rhyme and meter as the original theme.

Comedy Actor – Adam Scott, “Parks and Recreation,” and Jay Baruchel, “Man Seeking Woman.” Wait, it’s a tie? You better believe it. Both actors received 25% of the vote, and in this extremely competitive category that was enough for them to share the glory.

Comedy Actress – Emmy Rossum, “Shameless.” With 32% of the vote, maybe this is enough for Emmy to earn an Emmy! Amy Poehler was in second place with 19%, and we’re going to be super-bummed if she is not a contender for the final “Parks and Recreation” season.

Comedy Supporting Actor – Timothy Omundson, “Galavant.” People love Omundson, and why wouldn’t you? This was one of the larger runaways of the entire series, as he scored a mighty 73% of the vote. This is probably much higher than King Richard’s approval rating within his kingdom. (Corny as it may be, Omundson’s approval rating is 100% in our hearts!)

Comedy Supporting Actress – Mayim Bialik, “The Big Bang Theory.” A very commanding victory for Mayim with 76% of the vote going to her.

Limited Series – “Secrets and Lies.” With 48% of the vote, the underdog series from ABC pulled out a win here over “American Horror Story: Freak Show.”

Reality Competition – “The Quest.” This is the biggest runaway of the Emmy series. Nearly 80% of voters came out to make the brilliant-but-canceled ABC series the One True Hero.

Reality Host – Nick Cannon, “America’s Got Talent.” Less than 5% separated Cannon from Gordon Ramsay, and we’d wager that both men are very underrated as far as recognition in this category goes.