10 Seconds Of Footage Cost ‘Veep’ Guest Star Peter MacNicol His Emmy Nomination

Despite winning an impressive number of Emmy nominations for acting, HBO’s outrageous political comedy Veep just lost one of its nods due to an error discovered by the Television Academy. Not so much due to human error, per se, but poorly timed circumstances resulting from the show’s production schedule and the Academy’s submissions window for the 2016 awards season. Regardless, this means Peter MacNicol, the Ally McBeal alum whose Jeff Kane tore into Jonah Ryan for a chunk of season five, just lost the nod.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, performers eligible for the Outstanding Guest Actor in the Comedy Series category must appear in “less than 50 percent” of the submitted season. Unfortunately for MacNicol, he appears in five of the latest season’s 10 episodes. To make matters worse, he technically acted in only four episodes, which was why Veep submitted him in the first place, but an episode produced and aired after the submission period featured archival footage of MacNicol’s character. Ten seconds worth, to be exact.

In the end, though, MacNicol appeared in a fifth episode — he is seen in roughly 10 seconds of the season’s ninth episode, “Kiss Your Sister,” which includes “documentary footage” that Selena Meyer’s daughter, Catherine, had been seen filming throughout the season.

HBO won’t appeal the Academy’s decision, telling THR they were “very sorry that Peter’s brilliant performance will not be recognized.” Meanwhile, HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall suggested an appropriate response Kane might give to the news.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

×