The Biggest Emmy Surprises Of The Last 25 Years

Category: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy
Show: Coach

It wasn’t so much that Craig T. Nelson won the Emmy for Coach — he’d been nominated in each of the previous two years, after all. It was more the competition he bested that made his win so improbable. He beat the two previous winners in the category (Ted Danson for Cheers and Richard Mulligan for Empty Nest), Jerry Seinfeld for the breakout season of Seinfeld, Burt Reynolds for Empty Nest, and Kelsey Grammer, who was nominated for a guest spot on Wings, because that year anarchy reigned and categories didn’t matter. And so out of that soup emerged Craig T. Nelson, workaday football coach for fictional Minnesota State. Nelson was good on Coach! But good enough to justify John Goodman never winning an Emmy for Roseanne? Hmmm.

Category: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama
Show: The Practice

The Practice was already a surprise winner in this category the previous year when Camryn Manheim took the trophy (“for all the fat girls!” remember?), en route to a surprise win in Best Drama. The next year, The Practice was a much bigger deal, nominations-wise, but this was also the first year of The Sopranos, and while the question of whether or not an HBO series could break through in the top categories (it couldn’t, at least for its first few years), there was no question that Nancy Marchand’s performance as Livia was a lock. After all, Marchand was a 4-time Emmy winner (for Lou Grant) at death’s door who was giving the performance of a lifetime. It’s STILL a shocker that Holland Taylor — who was wonderful but in a borderline guest-starring role as a judge on The Practice — actually won. At least she gave a great speech.

Category: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama
Show: Once and Again

One and Again was a struggling family drama from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, who’d had success at the Emmys before with thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, but who were having trouble getting people to see their acclaimed series. Sela Ward was a previous winner in this category (for Sisters), but no one gave her much of a shot to win against last year’s winner Edie Falco or Julianna Margulies on her farewell ER season. But win she did

Category: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
Show: The Shield

It’s weird to think of in a year where The People v. O.J. Simpson and Fargo are two of the most-nominated shows, but FX used to be an underdog. The Shield was their first drama series, and when Michael Chiklis was nominated, that seemed like reward enough. This was the year that The Sopranos‘ delayed fourth season meant the HBO juggernaut was ineligible for the Emmys, which everyone assumed meant Martin Sheen was finally going to win for The West Wing. Not to be!

Category: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama
Show: Medium

Just getting a nomination for Arquette was a surprise, considering Medium was a middling mid-season replacement that didn’t have a whole lot of critical respect. That Arquette was the show’s only nomination that year didn’t bode well when stacked against her competition. Most figured that Glenn Close would steamroll for her one-season wonder of a performance on The Shield. And if not her, there were multiple-time nominees Mariska Hargitay, Frances Conroy, and Jennifer Garner, all worthy winners. Arquette’s win might be the single most shocking win of the last couple decades.

Category: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama
Show: Damages

The first season of Damages was a knockout, and the Emmys agreed, throwing multiple nominations its way, plus a trophy for Glenn Close. Most people figured if the show was going to triumph in Supporting Actor, the winner would be Ted Danson, whose character was such a richly-drawn villain and who was already a big-time Emmy fave from his Cheers days. That Zeljko Ivanek was even nominated as a rival lawyer was reward enough. But a secret rule of thumb is when the Emmys nominate someone you’ve never heard of, they did it for a reason. Ivanek’s A+ performance was rewarded with a shocker of a win. The warm reception that greeted his win tells you everything you need to know about how well-regarded character actors should never be counted out.

Category: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama
Show: The Good Wife

Remember that rule about how when the Emmys nominate someone you’ve never heard of, there’s a reason? Exhibit B: Archie Panjabi, whose situation mirrored Zeljko Ivanek’s so perfectly — surprise nomination for the first season of a show; up against a co-star (Christine Baranski) who was a previous Emmy fave —that I actually predicted her for an upset win based on that history alone.

Category: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy
Show: Mike & Molly

The pageant stunt devised by nominees Amy Poehler and Martha Plimpton this year, as delightful as it was, tends to overshadow the fact that Melissa McCarthy winning was a big ol’ upset. Up against competition like previous winners Tina Fey and Edie Falco, most people figured we were in for a third straight year of a lead actress from a Showtime dramedy, in this case Laura Linney from The Big C. But McCarthy had hit it big in Bridesmaids just that summer, and she was in the right place at the right time.

Category: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
Show: The Newsroom

The saga of Jon Hamm’s many Emmy losses is a saga of upsets. He was the matinee-idol star of the Emmys’ most-loved drama series, yet he was bedeviled from the break by competition from his own network. Bryan Cranston’s first win for Breaking Bad was a surprise. His second and third, less so. In 2011, scheduling quirks kept Cranston off the ballot … only to see Kyle Chandler sneak onto the stage for Friday Night Lights. Then Damian Lewis and Homeland were the flavor of the month in 2012. But the 2013 Emmy was special. You had Cranston, you had Hamm, you had Kevin Spacey from the buzzy first season of House of Cards. So of course the award went to Jeff Daniels for the borderline-hated The Newsroom. Emmys!

Category: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Show: Nurse Jackie

Probably the most delightful upset in recent memory, Wever’s Nurse Jackie character is such an unassuming underdog as it is, it was hard not to project that onto the actress herself, as she was stacked up against competition from Modern Family, 30 Rock, Veep, and Glee. Not only did Wever win, she delivered the most memorably brief speech of the night.