Amy Poehler seems destined to be another guest at the Emmys.
While she was a cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” Poehler received two Emmy nominations for supporting comedy actress in 2008 and 2009. In addition, despite the Television Academy’s updated rules barring former supporting nominees from submitting as guest performers, she is eligible to receive a nomination this year for hosting the second episode of Season 51.
In Jan. 2025, the TV Academy created a new rule that any performer who has previously been nominated for, or won, a lead or supporting acting Emmy may no longer submit in the guest performer categories for the same role. That revision has effectively barred a select number of performers who would otherwise hope to be in the Emmy running.
Meryl Streep, who was nominated for supporting comedy actress for Season 3 of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” was ineligible for guest actress consideration in Season 4 — and will be once again for Season 5 — despite appearing in only three and two episodes, respectively.
Interestingly, her Season 4 co-star, Paul Rudd, nearly qualified because he played a new character. Rudd had previously been nominated for supporting comedy actor in Season 3 for his role as Hollywood actor Ben Glenroy (the dead body). In Season 4, he portrayed Glen Stubbins, Ben Glenroy’s Irish-born former stunt double. Interestingly, in Season 5, Rudd voices L.E.S.T.R., the Arconia’s new robot doorman, which would make him eligible to submit in the voice performance category.
The rule also affects another Hulu series actor, last year’s supporting drama actor nominee, James Marsden, for Season 2 of the political thriller “Paradise,” despite appearing in only three of the eight episodes.
When “SNL” performers are entered for Emmy consideration, they are typically credited as playing “various characters.” However, official Emmy credits list the NBC sketch comedy’s hosts simply as “host” — a designation that creates ambiguity and exposes a loophole already drawing scrutiny from competing strategists and studios.
“It’s not fair,” one veteran publicist tells Variety. “This is a rule that’s uniquely beneficial to sketch shows, and punishes those who received nominations by sheer luck, or unlucky, if they didn’t.”
Often referred to as the “Claire Foy Rule,” the policy was named after “The Crown” star who won the Emmy for lead drama actress in 2018 for portraying Queen Elizabeth II. She later received another Emmy — this time in the guest actress category — in 2021 for a brief return as the same character and was nominated again in that category in 2024. Coincidentally, Olivia Colman, who also portrayed Queen Elizabeth II and won for lead actress, was not eligible to submit as a guest that year due to insufficient screen time.
Courtesy of SNL
Poehler is no stranger to Emmy glory. She’s received 26 career noms across multiple categories, including as an actor on “Parks and Recreation” and as a producer on “Russian Doll,” as well as for the documentary “Lucy and Desi” and the reality competition shows “Making It” and “Baking It.” She also received double noms for writing and hosting the 70th and 71st Golden Globe Awards.
She won her first Primetime Emmy in 2016 for guest comedy actress alongside co-host Tina Fey for “SNL.”
The current version of the rule will primarily affect a niche group of “SNL” alumni who have previously earned supporting acting nominations and later returned as hosts. Among those are Eddie Murphy (nominated in 1983), Bill Hader (2012, 2013), Alec Baldwin (winner in 2017, nominee in 2018) and past nominees Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, Leslie Jones, Cecily Strong and Aidy Bryant. Now that Bowen Yang is departing the show following the Ariana Grande Christmas episode, he could one day return as host and face no such restrictions — and it’s worth keeping an eye on long-standing cast member Kenan Thompson should he ever decide to leave.
The current iteration of the rule won’t affect former “SNL” cast members who frequent as hosts who were never nominated for acting Emmys during their tenures. Performers such as Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph have a clear pathway to eligibility for guest categories simply because they were never recognized in the main acting races during their time on the show.
Poehler’s hosting stint had many viral highlights, with her and Tina Fey satirizing former Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi and spoofing the Netflix thriller series “The Hunting Wives.”
Leave a Reply