Emmy Nomination: 6 Best Actor, 3 Outstanding Comedy Series
Why It's Egregious He Hasn't Won: The Office is one of the best comedy shows that has ever existed and Steve Carrel's portrayal of Michael Scott is just genius. The character of Michael Scott is both unlikable and likable at the exact same time. He is a childish and selfish ass, but is a damn fine salesmen and just wants everybody to like him. Even though he makes mistakes that make you cringe because he's so awkward, you still want this oaf of a man to win. After all the horrible things Michael Scott has done, you still root for him. Very few actors could have successfully pulled off Michael Scott, yet Carrel was able to do it.
Carrel lost Best Actor (Comedy) once to Tony Shalhoub (Monk) and Rocky Gervais (Extras) and twice to Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) and Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory). I think you can make a legitimate argument that Carrel should have lost in his first five years, but not winning in his final year on The Office is inexcusable. Not only did Jim Parsons not need a second Emmy (Plus, he would undeservingly later go on to win again in 2013), but Carrel did his best acting during his last season on The Office/The Michael Scott Farewell Tour.
Emmy Nominations: 4 Best Supporting Actress (Vergara), 3 Best Supporting Actor (O'Neill), & 4 Best Supporting Actor (Ferguson)
Why It's Egregious They Haven't Won: I'm conflicted about Modern Family. When it first came out, I absolutely loved it. But then as it started to get more popular and just dominating the Awards scene, I backed off of the show. I also felt like the ABC sitcom was repeating the same tropes. I got off the bandwagon once it started getting too crowded. I think I've come full circle now and have accepted (and realized) that Modern Family is just a damn funny show. I don't know that it deserves the amount of praise it gets, but that doesn't mean it's not funny.
As I mentioned earlier, Modern Family just destroys the Awards circuit. Every adult actor on the show has earned an Emmy nomination each of the last four years, with the exception of Ed O'Neill who didn't get a nomination in his first year because he "selfishly" threw his name in the Best Actor category instead of the Best Supporting Actor category. Modern Family has also won many Emmys, including 5 in acting categories. Eric Stonestreet and Julie Bowen each have two golden statutes and Ty Burrell has one. The issue though, is that no actor on Modern Family does inherently better than the other.
Taking aside the notion that for some reason the adult actors get nominations while none of the child actor are deemed worthy, there's nothing that separates one adult actor from the other. There's nothing Julie Bowen does so spectacularly better than Sophia Vergara (speaking English aside). In fact, Vergara's absence seems the most egregious, because she only has to compete against one other Modern Family star whereas the boys have to compete against three. However, if the Emmys are going to say that a Modern Family actor deserves to win (which I can begrudgingly get on board with), then they should spread the wealth. I believe that once a Modern Family actor wins an Emmy, they shouldn't be eligible to win until everyone else has won at least once. Surprisingly, the Emmy's seemingly got on board with this notion as Eric Stonestreet failed to earn a nomination last year.
If Eric Stonestreet, Ty Burrell, and Julie Bowen are Emmy winners, then there's no reason that Sofia Vergara, Ed O'Neill, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson should also be winners.
