‘Landman’ goes for Emmys, and ‘Proof’: Tony and Emmy awards analysis

The on-again, off-again spring thaw in New York isn’t preventing Tony and Emmy season from heating up. April has been a supremely busy month for theater lovers in particular, with a new show opening practically every night as May 5 — Tony nominations day — rapidly approaches. That means more curtain calls, more goofily named $25 in-theater cocktails and, above all, more time logged in the tourist-filled Times Square area than most New York lifers would prefer.

Emmy season is also starting to bud on this coast after having already fully flowered in Los Angeles. New Yorkers don’t necessarily get all the FYC billboards littering the landscape, but we do glimpse local and visiting contenders emerging from their warrens to see which way the award winds are blowing. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll spot them at a Broadway show or two.

Peak TV

In between scoping out Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson in The Fear of 13 and John Lithgow in Giant on Broadway, Gold Derby scaled a Manhattan skyscraper — courtesy of an elevator — to a white-glove establishment on the 100th floor with expansive views of the entire 51-block radius of Central Park. That tippy-top location was appropriately chosen by our heights-favoring Paramount+ hosts who had summoned a collection of press folks, TV industry voters and actors like Famke Janssen to attend the inaugural Icons of Taylor Sheridan‘s Universe FYC event.

The specific icons in question spanned multiple Sheridan-made shows: The Madison‘s Beau Garrett, Landman and 1923‘s Michelle Randolph, Landman‘s Ali Larter, and a double dose of Lioness with Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldaña in the house. The quintet praised the absent mastermind of their shared universe for his close collaboration and responsiveness to their last-minute texts. “I know he writes these complicated, powerful, sexy, bold women,” Larter emphasized. “It was exciting to be able to embody all of that.”

Certainly, Paramount’s choice to bestow “icon” status on Sheridan’s many and varied leading ladies represents a conscious change-up from the swaggering cowboy-hatted macho persona that defines both the creator and the series that have made him a streaming powerhouse — think Yellowstone, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and Tulsa King — but an Emmys also-ran. The revised playbook for this awards cycle appears to be following the Ryan Murphy example and recasting the Sheridan-verse as a prime destination for actresses seeking Jessica Lange-like late-career hosannas, Namoi Watts-style mid-career pivots, or Sarah Pidgeon-esque breakout parts.

In terms of which of these icons most benefits from this revised approach, Kidman and Saldaña only just wrapped filming the delayed third season of Lioness, so they won’t be in the mix until the 2027 Emmys cycle. Garrett, meanwhile, is on a series that’s best known for being “That Michelle Pfeiffer Show” (more on her in a minute), and any 2026 Emmy love will be served accordingly. That leaves the Landman duo of Randolph and Larter, and the latter has received the… uh, lioness’s share of attention for her scene-stealing role as Billy Bob Thornton’s ex-wife, Angela, who scored some meaty storylines in Season 2.

When Gold Derby caught up with Larter after the panel, the actress said she was thrilled by the response to the show’s sophomore year and grateful for Thornton and Sheridan’s comradeship. She also teased that she’s heading into Season 3 feeling confident that Angela will be a mover and shaker on her own terms and not just reacting to what’s thrown her way. “I know she can make any house her own,” Larter vowed.

For the record, Landman has been one of the rare Sheridan shows to pop up in non-Emmys contention; Thornton scored a Golden Globe nod for Season 1, while Season 2 landed in the Best Drama Ensemble race at the SAG Actor Awards. Thornton is currently sitting at No. 5 among the Best Drama Actor contenders on Gold Derby’s experts-only Emmys leaderboard, while Larter is considerably lower than that on the Drama Supporting Actress chart. Maybe achieving icon status will help her scale Mount Emmy.

Drama Actor

Sterling K. Brown

Paradise

Billy Bob Thornton

Landman

Jon Hamm

Your Friends and Neighbors

Rufus Sewell

The Diplomat

10.

Peter Claffey

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Michelle’s got no Emmy troubles

As mentioned, The Madison‘s already-iconic star didn’t make the 100-story journey to receive the Sheridan icon crown, but Pfeiffer has had a busy schedule of late. After promoting her Paramount+ show for the first two months of 2026, Pfeiffer’s been on the road for Apple TV talking up the streamer’s new prestige comedy, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, overseen by her real-life spouse, David E. Kelly. Now that both proverbial kids are out in the world, Batman’s favorite foe is almost certainly enjoying a cat nap before launching into Emmy mode.

Juggling two shows isn’t easy, but Pfeiffer’s also pfortunate in the pfact that these particular series won’t cross category streams. Despite moments of (frequently bizarre) comedy, The Madison is squarely in the melodrama mold, and the entire show is built around the star’s dramatic journey through grief and back again. Meanwhile, Margo has moments of (genuinely compelling) drama, but has its heart in being a rambunctious family comedy that allows her to channel her zany Married to the Mob days as the mother to Elle Fanning’s OnlyFans-posting single mom.

Our Emmy experts see Pfeiffer being rewarded for her foray into the streaming space by becoming a potential double nominee this year. She’s currently sitting at No. 6 on the Best Drama Actress chart ahead of The Morning Show‘s twice-nominated Jennifer Aniston for that final spot. A nod in that category would be a first for Pfeiffer, as well as a first for the extended Sheridan-verse. While The Madison wasn’t beloved amongst critics, Paramount+ has trumpeted its status as the creator’s biggest original series launch yet, and announced a Season 3 to follow the already-shot sophomore year. So even if Pfeiffer misses out this time around, she’ll be traversing the Montana range for years to come.

Drama Actress

Keri Russell

The Diplomat

Carrie Coon

The Gilded Age

Michelle Pfeiffer

The Madison

Jennifer Aniston

The Morning Show

Chase Infiniti

The Testaments

10.

Kristin Scott Thomas

Slow Horses

Pfeiffer seems like even more of a sure thing over in the Best Comedy Supporting Actress race, where she occupies the No. 3 spot on the strength of Margo‘s stellar reviews. Apple TV famously avoids disclosing viewership numbers whenever possible, and a second season has yet to be ordered, so we can’t factor the audience reaction into the awards equation just yet. But unlike Margo, Apple TV doesn’t have any money troubles when it comes to awards campaigns — as evidenced by their many and varied stunts supporting Severance last cycle — so Pfeiffer will be well-supported in her quest for a comedy nod to accompany her drama nod.

Interestingly, there’s another Sheridan-Kelley crossover in this particular race: Nicole Kidman, who pops up on a mid-season Margo episode and recurs until the endgame. Rather than go the Guest Comedy Actress route, the Australian actress — who is also is in Best Drama Actress contention for Prime Video’s Scarpetta — is running in the Comedy Supporting Actress race, pitting her directly against Pfeiffer. But among our experts, at least, it’s no contest as they’ve ranked this Lioness towards the back of the pack.

Comedy Supporting Actress

Janelle James

Abbott Elementary

Michelle Pfeiffer

Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Jessica Williams

Shrinking

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Abbott Elementary

Carol Burnett

Palm Royale

Ashley Padilla

Saturday Night Live

Liza Colon-Zayas

The Bear

10.

Justine Lupe

Nobody Wants This

Ocean Proof

Here’s an only in New York moment to send you into the weekend. As Gold Derby settled in for the Thursday night performance of Thomas Kail’s Tony-contending Proof revival starring Oscar nominee Don Cheadle and Emmy nominee Ayo Edebiri, we spotted the world’s best heister stealing into his seat just as the lights went down.

That’s right, George Clooney decided to use a rare night off to check up on his Ocean partner-in-crime’s latest gig. While it’s generally a proud New Yorker tradition to be utterly indifferent to celebrity cameos in a Broadway crowd, nobody gave this particular audience the memo as they collectively lost their chill at the sight of Clooney’s familiar smile and head-bob. C’mon folks — you’re making us look bad in front of the tourists.

From our vantage point, Clooney seemed to greatly enjoy this production of David Auburn’s finely-tuned play, back on Broadway for the first time since its Tony-winning run a quarter century ago. (Proof‘s return is part of a larger wave of early 2000s revivals that we chronicled in this space the other week.) It’s the first time that either of its stars have tread the Broadway boards, and they’re breaking new ground by being the first Black actors to perform the father-daughter drama in the heart of the New York theater world. We clocked an almost familial familiarity between Cheadle and Edebiri when we spoke with them at a press event last month, and that was preserved onstage, particularly in a wrenching centerpiece scene where the daughter has to become the parent.

“When we were able to read together for the first time, it just felt so right,” Edebiri told us previously about her first rehearsal with Cheadle. “Pretty instantly, I knew that I was safe with this person and this performer and the both of us could really get to play, get messy and explore.”

The Bear star is inheriting a role that Mary-Louise Parker originated in 2000 on her way to a Tony win for Best Actress. For now, our experts see Edebiri as sitting in sixth position in a crowded contest led by Carrie Coon in Bug and Lesley Manville in Oedipus — both productions that originated out of town and transferred to Broadway.

Best Actress (Play)

Susannah Flood

Liberation

Meanwhile, Cheadle is predicted to make the Best Actor cut that’s currently a three-way race between Death of a Salesman‘s Nathan Lane, Giant‘s John Lithgow, and Oedipus‘ Mark Strong. It’s worth noting, though, that he could still end up in the Featured Actor category instead after final eligibility is determined next week. That’s the category that his Broadway predecessor, Larry Bryggman, qualified for during the show’s original run, and is a more wide-open field this particular cycle.