Jean Smart has won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the first four seasons of Hacks.
Smart will now compete for a full sweep after landing another nomination in the category this morning.
The nomination sees Smart closing in on tying an Emmy record currently held by comedy legends Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman. If she wins in September, she will have eight Emmy wins, tying Veep star Louis-Dreyfus and The Mary Tyler Moore star Leachman’s record for most acting Emmys for a performer.
Given that TV Academy voters love to honor the stars of an award-winning series after it comes to an end, Smart has every chance to tie the record if she can beat The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, The Comeback’s Lisa Kudrow, Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson.
In addition to her four Hacks Emmys, Smart won two Emmys – in the Outanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series – for her role as Lana Gardner in seasons seven and eight of Frasier, as well as the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Christina Applegate-led ABC sitcom Samantha Who?
Earlier this year, Smart joked that she had misplaced one of her Emmys. When asked by Jimmy Kimmel, how many Emmys she has, she replied, “I have seven, but I lost one. I don’t know where it is.”
Louis-Dreyfus won six acting Emmys – in the same category as Smart is in for Hacks – for her performance as Selina Meyers in HBO’s Veep as well as one win for Seinfeld and one for The New Adventures of Old Christine.
Leachman, meanwhile, won two Emmys for starring as Phyllis Lindstrom in The Mary Tyler Moore Show as well as wins for A Brand New Life, Cher, Promised Land and two for Malcom in the Middle.
Louis-Dreyfus didn’t win a clean sweep for Veep, losing out to Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but Smart has the chance. If she does it, she will join Bill Cosby, who won Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for three seasons of NBC’s I Spy, and Blythe Danner, who won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for two seasons of Showtime’s short-lived Huff.
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