2015 Emmys: Should Mayim Bialik, Kate McKinnon, Niecy Nash win Supporting Actress prize?

Eight nominees. There must have been multiple nominees for the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category at the Emmys this year who all came close to a tie when the initial ballots were cast. How else did we end up with this many people?

We’re not going to complain about this too much, mostly because this may be one of the best lists that we’ve got for any category this year. You’ve got traditional sitcoms, live programming, streaming shows, and premium cable all represented here. You’ve also got a wide array of performers who use different techniques to make you laugh. While we’d argue that there is probably a favorite for voters (Alison Janney is always a favorite with voters), we do think there’s some room for an upset here.

The nominees

Mayim Bialik, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

Julie Bowen, “Modern Family” (ABC)

Anna Chlumsky, “Veep” (HBO)

Gaby Hoffmann, “Transparent” (Amazon)

Allison Janney, “Mom” (CBS)

Jane Krakowski, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix)

Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)

Niecy Nash, “Getting On” (HBO)

Who should win – Did you see those three names in the title? For us, those who we are considering at the top of our personal list this year. Bialik did some really great work this year, in particular in some of the later episodes. We always love McKinnon, and Niecy is probably the ultimate underdog this year, appearing on a show that had a very small but devoted audience. We’d probably give it to Niecy if we had to pick one, but Mayim is an extremely close second and we could see us changing our mind just depending on the day of the week. We’re probably more torn here than any other category.

Who will win – If we had to give this category percentage odds, we’d say that there is about a 50% chance that Janney repeats here, and then we’d give about 15% to Bowen, 10% to Kate, and then the other 25% is dispersed in non-proportional fashion among the other nominees.