2016 Emmys: Nominee Peter MacNicol (Veep) Disqualified as Guest Actor

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After Veep‘s Peter MacNicol was nominated for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series last week, the awards predicting circles began bubbling with the fact that his nomination went against the new “less than 50%” rule the Television Academy instituted last year. Meaning, for someone to qualify for Guest submission they could only appear in less than 50% of a series’ total eligible episodes in a season. Veep ran 10 episodes in its fifth season of which MacNicol appeared in five.

The Television Academy issued a statement that said: “Upon review of the Guest Actor in a Comedy Series category, the Television Academy has determined that Peter MacNicol unfortunately exceeds the number of episodes permissible for inclusion in that category.”

This isn’t the first time mistakes like this have happened. Just this year, Jason Sudekis was entered as Guest for his role as Will Forte’s brother on The Last Man on Earth but since he appeared in 11 0f 18 episodes, he was disqualified during the nomination process. The only occurrence of a nomination being revoked was in 2000 when Henry Winkler was nominated in Guest Actor in a Comedy for Battery Park. His episode didn’t air during the eligibility period and his nomination was rescinded and subsequently went to William H. Macy in Sports Night.

A replacement will be announced as soon as tomorrow.