What does Steve Carell have to do for Emmy voters to take notice?
In recent years, he’s died in car accidents twice (Apple TV’s “The Morning Show” and Netflix’s “Four Seasons”), been a billionaire with incurable cancer (HBO’s “Mountainhead”) and a therapist held hostage by his homicidal patient (FX’s “The Patient”). Geez, hasn’t this guy been through enough?
I guess it’s a spoiler alert, but Carell’s character on the HBO Max comedy “Rooster,” author-turned-college-instructor Greg Russo, is still alive at the end of Season 1 of the college-centric comedy. But given the recent morbid outcomes of Carell’s TV characters, it’s understandable if you held your breath and wondered if Greg would survive the season.
Carell earned an Emmy nomination this year in lead actor in a comedy series for “Rooster,” which reps the star’s 12th overall nod. In the win column, however, he has a big zero. Among all of this year’s Emmy-nominated performers, Carell has the most career nominations without a win.
That puts him in illustrious company: The only star who ever earned more Emmy nominations without a single win was “Murder She Wrote” star Angela Lansbury, who landed 18 career nominations but never won the prize before her death in 2022. (She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1996, but that’s not an Emmy.)
Somehow, Carell is now in second place among Emmy nominees without a win. His nods over the years include lead actor in a comedy series for “The Office” (as Michael Scott) in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 — for every season he starred in, except the first. Carell was also nominated as a producer when “The Office” received best comedy nods in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Until this year, Carell’s last Emmy nomination was for lead actor in a drama series in 2020, via “The Morning Show.”
Carell’s Emmy drought is often cited as one of the most glaring omissions of all time by Emmy voters (well, next to Lansbury — who did she have to murder to get a win?). Carell himself has been quiet about it, never really addressing the snubs in public.
But some of his friends and colleagues have theories: Last year, director Paul Feig told Dana Carvey and David Spade on their “Fly on the Wall” podcast his theory on why Carell never won: “If you’re good, you make it look effortless.” Meanwhile, in an interview with a sports radio station in 2024, “The Office” star Creed Bratton said Carell’s lack of an Emmy was “a travesty. That’s still a bone of contention.”
In “Rooster,” created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, Carell’s character is a successful novelist and a divorcé whose relationship with his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), is complicated. It gets even more complex when he winds up getting a job as a visiting lecturer at the small New England college where Katie also teaches. The show plays to Carell’s strengths, both in awkward comedy (Greg is a bit of a mess) and in touching, dramatic moments as he connects with his daughter and his new colleagues.
But breaking his Emmy losing streak is going to be tough. For one thing, Carell’s is the only Emmy nomination for “Rooster,” and he faces tough competition from “Widow’s Bay” star Matthew Rhys. Others in the category include “Only Murders in the Building” star Martin Short, “Wonder Man” star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (whose show was just shockingly and disappointingly canceled) and the star of Lawrence’s “Shrinking” juggernaut, Jason Segel.
And perhaps just as telling, Carell hasn’t been campaigning for this Emmy. There’s an ongoing debate over how much hitting the trail matters — but especially in a race like this, you’ve got to shake a few hands and snap a few selfies. Without that, Carell is likely to have to settle for a hopefully luckier Emmy nomination No. 13.