A running gag on the Hulu limited series “Welcome to Chippendales” was Nick De Noia (Murray Bartlett) telling people that he has won not one but two Emmys for choreographing “Unicorn Tales.” Now Bartlett can pick up a second Emmy this year in the very category he won last year for “The White Lotus,” Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor. And if that happens, he’ll break new ground as the first person to win the category two years in a row.
The list of people who’ve won Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor more than once is very tiny in general. Since the category was established in 1975, only Beau Bridges has won it multiple times, prevailing in 1993 for “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom” and 1997 for “The Second Civil War.” You could count Michael Moriarty, but he only won this specific category, which has undergone several name changes, in 2002 for “James Dean.” Before 1975, supporting performers in limited series and TV movies had to compete in the drama or comedy supporting categories, so Moriarty won Best Drama Supporting Actor for the TV movie “The Glass Menagerie” in 1974.
The lack of repeat champs in a category ostensibly recognizing one-off projects makes sense, of course, but with limited series more popular than ever (everything is a limited series until it isn’t), there may be more back-to-back winners in the future. In the other limited/TV movie acting categories, Helen Mirren, who has a record four lead actress statuettes, won in 2006 and 2007 for “Elizabeth I” and “Prime Suspect: The Final Act,” respectively. Most recently, Regina King went back to back in supporting actress for the same show, the anthology series “American Crime,” in 2015 and 2016.
Bartlett was the runaway favorite last year for his turn as doomed White Lotus manager Armond and beat two of his co-stars, Jake Lacy and Steve Zahn. He won the Emmy two months before the premiere of “Welcome to Chippendales,” on which he played another ill-fated — and this time real — character. De Noia, the Chippendales choreographer, was murdered in 1987 after Chippendales founder Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) ordered a hit on him.
At the moment, Bartlett is in fifth place in the odds, trailing Golden Globe champ Paul Walter Hauser (“Black Bird”), Richard Jenkins (“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”), Domhnall Gleeson (“The Patient”) and Ray Liotta (“Black Bird”). Young Mazino (“Beef”) and Ciarán Hinds (“The English”) are in sixth and seventh, respectively. As it stands, he’s closer to missing the lineup than winning. Plus, “Welcome to Chippendales” didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but you can say the same about most of these aforementioned shows outside of “Monster.” This is also a pretty fluid category with not a whole lot of locks. That can help someone like Bartlett, who has individual goodwill. He received “Chippendales'” sole nomination at the Critics Choice Awards and was in one of the most beloved episodes of TV this year, “Long, Long Time” from “The Last of Us.” He is in second place in the drama guest actor odds for that, behind co-star Nick Offerman.
So if things don’t work out with “Chippendales” for Bartlett, he still has another opportunity to become a two-time Emmy winner, just like De Noia.
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