Seven years ago, Donald Glover won his first two Emmys, Best Comedy Actor and Best Comedy Directing for “Atlanta.” While he missed out on nominations last year for the final season of his FX series — he did receive a writing bid for “Swarm” — Glover is back in the hunt this cycle with “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Inspired by the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie film of the same name, the spy series is competing in drama, which means Glover could become just the second man and third person to win lead Emmys in comedy and drama.
Carroll O’Connor is thus far the only male performer to have achieved this, having pocketed a record-setting four Best Comedy Actor Emmys for “All in the Family” in 1972 and three in a row from 1977-79 before adding a Best Drama Actor statuette for “In the Heat of the Night” in 1989. The only other member of this elite club is Edie Falco, who swept the actress categories in the reverse order. A three-time Best Drama Actress champ for “The Sopranos” in 1999, 2001 and 2003, Falco won Best Comedy Actress for “Nurse Jackie” in 2010, becoming the first woman to accomplish the feat.
Several performers have won Emmys across the two genres — but not both in lead like O’Connor and Falco. Ed Asner took home three Best Comedy Supporting Actor trophies for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” before headlining his drama spin-off “Lou Grant,” for which he won two Best Drama Actor Emmys. John Lithgow is a triple Best Comedy Actor champ for “3rd Rock from the Sun,” but his drama Emmys are in guest (“Amazing Stories,” “Dexter”) and supporting (“The Crown”). Some have come close to completing the set. Allison Janney has victories in three of the four series regular acting categories — two in drama supporting and two in drama lead for “The West Wing,” and two in comedy supporting for “Mom” — but she went 0-3 on her three Best Comedy Actress bids for the latter. Jennifer Aniston, a Best Comedy Actress champ for “Friends,” was nominated for Best Drama Actress for “The Morning Show’s” first season but was snubbed for its second season. She has another chance this year for the third season and is the odds-on favorite.
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At the moment, Glover is in the precarious sixth spot in the Best Drama Actor odds, behind Gary Oldman (“Slow Horses”), Dominic West (“The Crown”), Colin Farrell (“Sugar”), Tom Hiddleston (“Loki”) and Ben Mendelsohn (“The New Look”). The good news for him and everyone in the field is that the category will see a total turnover as all six 2023 nominees are gone — “Succession,” which yielded an unprecedented three nominees, including champ Kieran Culkin, and “Better Call Saul” are over, while “The Last of Us” and “The Old Man” won’t make eligibility.
Who’s to say what voters will gravitate toward this year with so many of their favorites MIA and lots of new shows and unproven contenders? You know who is proven though? Glover. He has 11 Emmy nominations, all since 2017, while the five men ahead of him have earned six nominations combined between 2001 and 2017. Sure, Glover’s bids aren’t just in acting, but him being an established TV auteur cannot hurt. While “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” on which he and Maya Erskine play strangers-turned-married-spies-turned-lovers, isn’t an original idea, he created the Amazon Prime Video series with Francesca Sloane, co-wrote the pilot, and co-wrote and directed the intense cliffhanger finale. The action romance also had a solid streaming debut after dropping all eight episodes on Feb. 2.
It’s obviously way too early to say if O’Connor and Falco will get some company this year as a lot would depend on the lineup and how shows perform, but don’t be surprised if this wide-open drama field provides the perfect atmosphere for it to happen.
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