Emmy Awards Guest Star and Cameo Eligibility is Confusing

Sadly, I won’t be eligible for the Emmy guest actor race this year — nor will my Variety colleague Kate Aurthur. We made cameo appearances in the Season 4 premiere of “Hacks” (playing ourselves, naturally), but weren’t long enough to be deemed eligible.

That’s probably fine, as we’re quite an explosive era of guest star and cameo stints on TV. That goes hand-in-hand with another trend I’ve previously written about: the uptick in shows about Hollywood. This was the year to flash your face on the small screen, and Kate and I are in good company.

One of the more unusual ones was Ted Sarandos, playing himself as the co-head of Netflix — but on Apple TV+’s “The Studio.” I recently asked Sarandos about whether he was planning to stage an FYC campaign for his spot on the show’s Golden Globes episode, and he chuckled at the idea of an Apple TV+ logo under his image. If he ends up doing it on a lark, credit me.

But hey, maybe it’s not so far-fetched. One of that show’s exec producers, Evan Goldberg, confessed to me that he was impressed with how quickly and effortlessly Sarandos stepped into the role — noting that actual actors sometimes get too much in their head and really struggle playing heightened versions of themselves.

Maybe there the Emmys should have an Outstanding Cameo of Someone Playing Themselves category. (If so, this is my FYC.) Speaking of “The Studio” cameos, “Hacks” executive producers Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky also appear as themselves in that Globes episode — and for Downs, that must have been extra surreal. He’s a producer who plays a character on “Hacks,” and now he’s an actor playing himself as a producer on “The Studio.”

“That is very ‘Inception,’” Downs says. After that experience, Downs, Aniello and Statsky then turned around and cast “The Studio” star and executive producer Seth Rogen as himself on “Hacks.” It’s a bit unusual for two of the top Emmy comedy contenders to have so much on-screen crossover.

“It feels like we all really appreciate each other,” Downs says. “Seth has been a supporter of ‘Hacks’ for a long time. We’re all friends, and it was very flattering to be asked to do his show. And then it was so nice that he graciously returned the favor. We’re just happy to see comedies being made, especially comedies that celebrate film and television.”

What about the real guest contenders? In comedy actor, my colleague Clayton Davis is keener on Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese playing heightened versions of themselves, as well as Bryan Cranston as an out-of-touch media mogul, all from “The Studio,” and then also throws in a pair from “The Bear” (Jon Bernthal and John Cena) for good measure. In actress, he highlights Sarah Polley from “The Studio,” Julianne Nicolson from “Hacks,” Jamie Lee Curtis from “The Bear” and Melissa McCarthy from “Only Murders in the Building,” among others.

Last year, both Bernthal and Curtis won. They could both win again. Wait, does that still make them guests? Aye, that’s the rub. Although they’ve recurred over multiple seasons, it’s been in drips, which is why they’re still guests. But confusing the issue, a new TV Academy rule change dictates that actors who previously nominated for lead or supporting roles can’t be nominated as a guest — even if they’re barely seen this season. It’s why just yesterday, Variety scooped that “The Handmaid’s Tale” star Alexis Bleidel has withdrawn her Emmy submission. Because she was nominated as supporting actress in 2018, she would have had to compete there this year, even though she really should have been in guest.

The stipulation has the best intentions: It’s been nicknamed the “Queen Elizabeth rule” because of how Claire Foy was able to win a best actress Emmy, and then later a guest actress Emmy, for the same role. That seems weird, we get it.

But there’s gotta be a better answer. “Guest” meant something when you really just had a bit part in a 22-episode season. Now, if you manage to make just under 50% (the threshold) of episodes on an 8-episode season, are you really a guest?

I don’t know the answer, other than to tell you that Kate and I are definitely not guests, but we’re ready to compete in that outstanding cameo category. We’re taking you down, Sarandos!