Emmy Picks: Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
by Joel Keller, posted Aug 20th 2010 2:40PM

With the Emmy voting closed and the awards just over a week away, it's high time for me to resume giving you who I think should and who I think will win the major awards.
I've already given my picks for the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, Best Supporting Actress in a Drama and Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy awards. Now we move on to the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy category, where the competition is fierce... especially if you're on 'Modern Family.'
Nominees:
Ty Burrell, 'Modern Family'
Chris Colfer, 'Glee'
Jon Cryer, 'Two and a Half Men'
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, 'Modern Family'
Neil Patrick Harris, 'How I Met Your Mother'
Eric Stonestreet, 'Modern Family'
Who will win: This is an extremely tough category to handicap, mainly because pretty much everyone in the category -- except for Cryer, who should submit himself as a lead actor -- deserves the award. However, because of the Academy's tendency to keep giving the award to the same people year in and year out (this award should be called the John Larroquette Award for the number of times he won it when he was on 'Night Court'), I'm going to have to painfully say that Cryer still has a good shot of taking it this year, especially if the three 'Modern Family' actors split people's votes.
Who should win: Pretty much everyone else in the category. Trying to pick between Stonestreet, Ferguson and Burrell is the toughest part, since they all did fantastic jobs on 'Modern Family' this year. NPH has been nominated four times for playing Barney Stinson, and every year he's deserved the award. And Colfer was the most underrated member of the 'Glee' cast; I put him on my dream ballot because I thought he had the best performances of anyone on the show who wasn't Jane Lynch.
If I had to pick a name, though, I'd go with NPH. It's time for him to win one, don't you think?
Dark Horse: Colfer. The episode he submitted, 'Laryngitis,' not only has him doing a bravura take on 'Rose's Turn' from 'Gypsy,' but the scene at the end where Kurt and his dad Burt (played by Mike O'Malley, who's nominated in the guest actor category for the role) share an emotional moment shows that Colfer has a good handle on a role that could have become cartoonish in many actors' hands.
Who do you think will take home the Emmy?
(Follow @joelkeller on Twitter.)

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