Emmy nominee profile: Kate McKinnon (‘Saturday Night Live’) would be fifth 3-time Best Comedy Supporting Actress champ
Over the course of 47 years, “Saturday Night Live” has amassed 94 acting Emmy nominations, 40 of which have gone to series regulars. Nine of these belong to Kate McKinnon, who, since surpassing Kristen Wiig in 2018, has held the record among all “SNL” repertory players for most TV academy notices. The NBC sketch show’s longest-serving female cast member just concluded her 11-season tenure and is now seeking her third Best Comedy Supporting Actress trophy, having bagged her first two in 2016 and 2017. If she succeeds, she will follow Valerie Harper (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”) and Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) as the category’s fifth triple champion.
McKinnon has submitted “Host: Natasha Lyonne,” the 47th season finale, for Emmy consideration. Her swan song performance consists of appearances in the episode’s first and last sketches, with the former constituting the sixth reprisal of her Colleen Rafferty character. The frequent UFO abductee, first played by McKinnon in 2015, delivers an expectedly outlandish account of her latest extraterrestrial encounter before agreeing to permanently leave Earth in order to facilitate the Pentagon’s acquisition of alien technology. Later, the actress closes out the show by portraying one of several spokeswomen for “Grey Adult Pigtails.”
SEE Kate McKinnon’s Emmy episode submission revealed
McKinnon’s first acting nomination in 2014 was paired with a Best Original Music and Lyrics bid for the “SNL” tune “(Do it on My) Twin Bed.” That songwriting prize ultimately went to “Bigger!” (written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tom Kitt) from the 67th Tony Awards. McKinnon’s back-to-back wins were sandwiched between those of two other supporting ladies: Allison Janney (“Mom,” 2014-15) and Alex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” 2018-19). She was then bested in 2020 by Annie Murphy (“Schitt’s Creek”) and in 2021 by Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”).
The only two women who have earned more Best Comedy Supporting Actress nominations than McKinnon are 10-time contenders Loretta Swit (“M*A*S*H”) and Perlman. Swit scored two wins in 1980 and 1982, while Perlman’s four came in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1989. Until this year, McKinnon shared her second place ranking with eight-time “Will & Grace” nominee Megan Mullally, who happens to be the last one to have received this award for a finale performance, in 2006.
In this year’s Best Comedy Supporting Actress contest, McKinnon is once again being challenged by both Borstein and Waddingham, as well as returning 2021 nominees Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) and Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”). This is the second time McKinnon has been recognized alongside two other past winners, with the first instance having involved Metcalf and Mullally in 2018. Rounding out this year’s lineup are a third “Ted Lasso” actress, Sarah Niles, and “Abbott Elementary” duo Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph.
This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “Emmy nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2022 acting contenders.
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