Poll Results - Who SHOULD win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama?

A far better turnout for the poll this time than we had for the lead actors; I wonder why? We also had a clear winner.

Ten votes were cast. In a tie for third place we had Geena Davis from Commander in Chief, Mariska Hargitay from Law & Order: SVU, and Allison Janney of The West Wing with one vote (10%) each. In second place with two votes (20%) was Frances Conroy from Six Feet Under but the clear winner was The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick with five votes (50%).

I can't honestly evaluate Kyra Sedgwick's performance on The Closer since I don't think I've ever seen an episode of the show. The fact is that I think that she was in a rather lackluster field. Geena Davis is an excellent actress but I think she was ill-served by the writing and the upheaval surrounding Commander in Chief. Still I don't think what we saw of her performance was Emmy-worthy. I don't think I can say much about Mariska Hargitay since I also don't watch L&O:SVU. It just seems like her nomination is a matter of course for playing a strong role in a crime drama. Finally, based on the relatively few episodes I've seen of Six feet Under, I'm never sure exactly why Frances Conroy gets nominated in the Outstanding Actress rather than the Outstanding Supporting Actress category. That's probably just the way I see things though.

Now let me indulge myself for a bit to say why I think that Allison Janney should have received more support in this poll than she did - maybe not as much as Sedgwick but at least as much as Conroy. I'm probably a bit prejudiced since I've loved "Flamingo" (C.J. Cregg's Secret Service code name) since she fell off the treadmill in the pilot episode of The West Wing and some of my best fantasies involve Allison Janney, Kristin Chenoweth and creative ways of removing clothing. Those things being noted, I still say that Janney's work in the last season of The West Wing was some of her best on the show. The focus of the "administration" episodes of the season was focused far more on C.J. as the Chief of Staff of the lame duck Bartlett administration than it was on Martin Sheen's President Bartlett. We are made privy to her personal life and as the season drew to its end we became increasingly focussed on what she's going to do after leaving the best job she could imagine. I think she delivered a great overall season, although of course Emmy nominations are based on a single submitted episode rather than cumulative work over a season.

New poll (on miniseries so I don't expect a lot of votes - surprise me) up shortly.