Peter MacNicol's appearances broke the rules

An actor from Veep has been stripped of his Emmy nomination – after organisers realised his performance was ineligible. Peter MacNicol was last week nominated for outstanding guest actor in a comedy for his role as New Hampshire politician Jeff Kane in the HBO show. He appeared in five of the ten episodes of the latest season, but Emmy rules say actors can only be up for the guest award if the are in LESS THAN half of a programme's current series. In a statement, the Television Academy that gives out the awards 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. ‘HBO’s guest actor entry for Peter MacNicol was accurate at the time of the submission deadline, but he was subsequently included in an additional Veep episode. Unfortunately, that additional appearance places him in 50 per cent of the season’s episodes and makes him no longer eligible to compete in the guest actor category. ‘This decision is in no way a diminishment of Mr MacNicol’s stellar performance on this season of Veep. MacNicol was nominated alongside Veep co-star Martin Mull, Tracy Morgan and Larry David for Saturday Night Live, Bob Newhart for The Big Bang Theory and Bradley Whitford for Transparent. Another actor will now be named in his place, possibly as soon as today. Veep has just concluded its fifth season, its first without creator Armando Iannucci as its showrunner.

Published: 21 Jul 2016