Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety chief awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

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Outstanding Guest Acting Categories (Updated: Aug. 21, 2026): The guest performers can go many different directions. The comedy side is most interesting.

COMEDY GUEST ACTRESS

Leslie Bibb, “Hacks” (HBO Max) | “Montecito”
A first-time nominee submitting the same episode as Cherry Jones, which is either a two-hander or a bloodbath depending on how it plays. Bibb had the year of her career, and “Hacks” guest slots have become the most competitive real estate on the comedy ballot. Five of seven nominees come from this show.

Jamie Lee Curtis, “The Bear” (FX) | “Tonnato”
She won this in 2024 and returns with a submission that also carries Rob Reiner’s posthumous nomination. Curtis has an Oscar and an Emmy and now the rare distinction of anchoring the single most emotionally loaded tape in the field. Donna Berzatto detonates in roughly 12 minutes. That is all this category requires.

Betty Gilpin, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) | “Our History”
Twice nominated for “GLOW” without winning, Gilpin submits an episode that appears nowhere else on the ballot, meaning voters will encounter it cold. That is a risk and an advantage. She is one of the sharpest comic actors of her generation and the only non-“Hacks,” non-“Bear” nominee here. Someone has to break the wall.

Cherry Jones, “Hacks” (HBO Max) | “Montecito”
A multiple Emmy winner including “24” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Jones is the most decorated performer in this category and submits the same tape as Leslie Bibb. Stage royalty doing precision comedy is a hard combination to vote against. The vote split is the only thing standing between her and a trophy.

Laurie Metcalf, “Hacks” (HBO Max) | “The Garden”
A dual nominee this year and one of the most awarded television actors alive, Metcalf submits an episode inside the show’s own six, which means maximum exposure. She has won guest actress before, more than once. The Academy has never needed much of an excuse. “The Garden” gives them one anyway.

Kaitlin Olson, “Hacks” (HBO Max) | “D’Amazing Race”
Twenty years of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and the Emmy nomination arrives via someone else’s show, which is its own kind of commentary. Olson submits an episode outside the series six, so the tape stands alone. DJ is the most thankless part on “Hacks” and Olson has made her land every season.

Lauren Weedman, “Hacks” (HBO Max) | “The Cube”
A first-time nominee submitting an episode nowhere near the series tape, which means this nomination came from voters who actually watched the whole season. That almost never happens. Weedman is a longtime comedy lifer finally recognized in a category where five of the seven slots belong to one show.

COMEDY GUEST ACTOR
Michael J. Fox, “Shrinking” (Apple TV) | “The Field”

His first nomination since 2016 and a reminder that he has five Emmys already, across “Family Ties,” “Spin City” and “Rescue Me.” Fox does not appear on television casually anymore, which means every frame of this submission carries weight the category rarely sees. This is the emotional favorite and possibly the whole night’s biggest ovation.

Brett Goldstein, “Shrinking” (Apple TV) | “Happiness Mission”

A two-time winner for “Ted Lasso” who submits an episode inside the show’s own series tape, doubling his exposure. Goldstein is also a writer and producer on “Shrinking,” which is the sort of thing voters remember. Beating Michael J. Fox in this particular category would require a genuinely extraordinary 40 minutes.

Hamish Linklater, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) | “Seasickness”

A first-time nominee submitting the season finale, the same episode as Stephen Root. Linklater has been doing career-best work in horror-adjacent television for years without a single mention. That the recognition arrives for a comedy is fitting for a performer whose default mode has always been unnerving lightness.

Christopher McDonald, “Hacks” (HBO Max) | “No New Tricks”

Forty years of playing the guy you love to dislike, and the episode title is practically a wink at the whole career. McDonald submits outside the series six. In a category where “Hacks” holds real estate on both sides of the aisle, being the show’s lone male guest nominee is not the worst position.

Rob Reiner, “The Bear” (FX) | “Tonnato”

The posthumous nomination, and the tape he shares with Jamie Lee Curtis. Reiner won two Emmys for “All in the Family” more than 50 years ago, and this is the last performance the Academy will get to recognize. Voters do not need a strategy memo to know what to do here. They rarely do.

Connor Storrie, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC) | “Host: Connor Storrie”

A first-time nominee whose own series was ruled ineligible because it was financed outside the U.S., so the Academy found another door. That is one of the stranger footnotes in recent Emmy history. Hosting “SNL” as a breakout is a category tradition. Winning it as a consolation prize would be new.

The Emmy Awards timeline begins with nomination-round voting from June 11-22, with nominations announced on July 8. The final voting runs from Aug. 17-26, leading into the Creative Arts Awards and Governors Gala on Sept. 5–6, culminating with the Emmy Awards ceremony on Sept. 14 on NBC.