Poll Results – Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama

We have the results from the Emmy poll for who should win the Emmy for the Outstanding Actress In A Drama, and I have to say that in most respects I'm quite pleased. This poll had a high turn-out, which is unusual for one of these polls, particularly so early – these things usually build up momentum over time – and while we don't have a clear cut winner I think it does reflect what this poll is all about. The thing that I'm less than happy with, and obviously this is me, is that I didn't get any comments explaining votes. All I got was comment spam that was caught in the moderation process. Could we please get some comments next time that actually deal with the subject and don't link me to Chinese women?

Okay, with that out of the way I suppose you want the actual results. There were fourteen votes cast. For purposes of comparison, there were nine votes cast in this category last year. In a tie for fifth place, with no votes, are Juliana Margulies from the CBS drama The Good Wife, and Janurary Jones from the AMC hit Mad Men. In fourth place with two votes (14%) is perennial nominee Kyra Sedgwick from TNT's The Closer. However there is a three-way tie for first place. With four votes each (29%) your preference for who should win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama is Glenn Close from FX's Damages...or Mariska Hargitay from NBC's Law & Order: SVU...or Connie Britton from DirecTV and NBC's Friday Night Lights.

I think the winner is going to be Glenn Close. She has won in this category both times that she's been nominated. I can't speak to her performance because I've never seen the series; I've always been unavailable when the show has been on one of the Canadian cable channels. Still it is Glenn Close and I do know the intensity that she puts into every role that she acts in. Mariska Hargitay is a consistent nominee in the category – this is here second nomination – but she's only won once. Last year I wrote that Hargitay, "hasn't changed things up too much in Law & Order: SVU. She's an excellent actress but I'm not sure why she keeps getting nominated." Maybe I was a bit harsh there. It's obvious that she is a first rate actress – she's been nominated every year since 2004 – but I still have to wonder if her performances in each of those year's is worthy of the nomination. Finally there's Connie Britton. I don't vote in these things but if I did, my vote would go to Connie. Her performance as Tami Taylor is a letter perfect portrayal of a harried wife and mother. Tami is at turns loving and supportive, and angry and frustrated. There's a lot of "dimension" in the role that Connie Britton plays and the surprise isn't that she's been nominated in the show's fourth season, but rather that she wasn't nominated in the show's previous three seasons. She's who I think should win...but probably won't.

Finally, I think if there's a dark horse out there who might beat out Glenn Close, it could be Juliana Margulies. Her performance as Alicia Florek in The Good Wife. She progresses from having a "deer in the headlights" look in the early episodes of the show, overwhelmed by everything that has happened to her to a more confident and committed woman who isn't going to take any crap from anyone anymore. An excellent performance...but I still like Connie Britton's work better.

New poll up in a few minutes.