"The Crown" is on track to become the first show since "Cagney & Lacey" in 1985 to win its first Best Drama Series Emmy for its fourth season, but that is not the only Emmy history it could share with the procedural. If Emma Corrin takes Best Drama Actress as widely expected, "The Crown" will join "Cagney & Lacey" as the only shows to win the category for multiple actresses.
"Cagney & Lacey" dominated drama actress in the '80s and holds the category record with six wins. Tyne Daly won four of them from 1983-85 and in 1988, while her screen partner Sharon Gless bested her in 1986 and '87. "The Crown" notched its first victory here in 2018 when Claire Foy won for her second and final season on "The Crown" as Queen Elizabeth II.
The Best Drama Actress category as we know it was standardized in 1966, but prior to that, the Emmys awarded lead performances regardless of genre, which meant you had sitcom titans Lucille Ball ("I Love Lucy," 1956) and Mary Tyler Moore ("The Dick Van Dyke Show," 1964) winning the same category as dramatic anthology queens Loretta Young ("The Loretta Young Show," 1955, 1957 and 1959) and Barbara Stanwyck ("The Barbara Stanwyck Show," 1961; Stanwyck later won the award for "The Big Valley" in 1966). If you count these non-genre-specific years, 14 shows have triumphed in the category more than once, but the other 13 shows did not win for multiple performers. These series include three-time champs like "Mission: Impossible" (Barbara Bain, 1967-69) and "The Sopranos" (Edie Falco, 1999, 2001 and 2003) and two-time champs like "The West Wing" (Allison Janney, 2002 and 2004) and "The Good Wife" (Julianna Margulies, 2011 and 2014).
SEE The type of Emmy win 'The Crown' is seeking has not been achieved in a very, very long time
Most shows don't have multiple lead contenders of the same gender, so the lack of multiple drama actress winners for the same show is not too surprising -- and it makes "Cagney & Lacey's" feat even more notable. Other shows that have fielded multiple drama actress nominees have thus far come up short when it comes to wins. Falco beat her "Sopranos" co-star Lorraine Bracco, who later dropped to supporting and never won for the show, for two of her statuettes, while "Killing Eve" has won for Jodie Comer but not Sandra Oh yet. Barbara Bel Geddes took home an Emmy for "Dallas" in 1980, but her co-star Linda Gray lost on her one and only bid the following year.
"The Crown's" case is unique since the Netflix drama changes casts, so there are fresh actors to recognize every two years -- and sometimes within the same era. Corrin was only a series regular for Season 4 and has already scored the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for her performance as Princess Diana. Even if her name is not in the envelope on Emmy night, "The Crown" could still get another win in the category for a second actress via Olivia Colman, who's in second place in the odds and lost the award last year to Zendaya ("Euphoria"), who's ineligible this year. In this case, Colman would prevail for the same character than brought Foy, her predecessor, the Emmy. And with Foy in the running in guest for reprising her role this season, "The Crown" could win three Emmys for two actresses for playing the same character in two different categories. And that is something "Cagney & Lacey" cannot claim.
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I Think Emma Corrin Win Best Drama Actress