While the first Primetime Emmys battle involving two male drama series costars occurred in 1957, it took until 1980 for there to be such a showdown in the corresponding female category. In the time since on-screen mother and daughter Sada Thompson and Kristy McNichol (“Family”) faced off, 11 more pairs of dramatic lead actresses have been pitted against each other at the Emmys between one and six times each. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the 23 separate cases of dual Best Drama Actress nominations.
The largest portion of this category’s costar face-offs is credited to Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless of “Cagney & Lacey.” After Gless replaced Daly’s first season costar, Meg Foster, the pair never failed to jointly earn TV academy recognition, leading to a record four wins for Daly (1983-1985, 1988) and two for Gless (1986-1987). The other series that account for multiple entries on this list (three apiece, to be exact) are “L.A. Law,” “The Sopranos,” and “Killing Eve.”
This gallery does not include actresses who were nominated in this category for series on which they only made single-episode guest appearances. Daly and Gless’s wins represent half of those that have derived from these 23 situations, the rest of which are attributed to Barbara Babcock (“Hill Street Blues,” 1981), Sela Ward (“Sisters,” 1994), Edie Falco (“The Sopranos,” 1999, 2001), Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve,” 2019), and Olivia Colman (“The Crown,” 2021).
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