Will Matt Bomer (‘Fellow Travelers’) be redeemed at the Emmys 10 years after shocking loss for ‘The Normal Heart’?

Daniel Montgomery
·3 min read

Matt Bomer earned his first Emmy nomination 10 years ago for his supporting role in the HBO telefilm “The Normal Heart.” He played AIDS-afflicted Felix Turner, a role that had previously won John Benjamin Hickey a Tony Award on Broadway. Bomer was the overwhelming favorite to win his race, but he was upset by Martin Freeman for playing Dr. Watson in “Sherlock: His Last Vow.” However, Bomer is back this year in another project that addresses queer history in the United States, “Fellow Travelers.” Will he win this time?

Bomer stars in “Travelers” as Hawkins Fuller, a State Department official hiding his homosexuality, from the Pink Scare that purged queer people from government during the Cold War to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. The performance earned Bomer nominations from the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and he won a Peabody Award as a producer of the limited series. He didn’t win any of his acting races, but the man who beat him, Steven Yeun (“Beef”), was already eligible for and won the Emmy last year.

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He can breathe a sigh of relief that Yeun is out of the way, but the spring of 2024 flooded the field with new contenders who threaten to crowd Bomer out of the category altogether. Based on the combined predictions of Gold Derby users as of this writing, Bomer is on the bubble for Best Movie/Limited Actor, ranked fifth with 15/2 odds. Jon Hamm (“Fargo”) and Richard Gadd (“Baby Reindeer”) are the current front-runners battling for the win, followed by Andrew Scott (“Ripley”) and Tom Hollander (“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”).

Will voters remember “Fellow Travelers”? It aired last fall, so there’s a risk of it being overshadowed by more recent programs. But one Emmy Expert, Matt Roush (TV Guide Magazine) is betting on Bomer to win. And nine other Experts expect him to be nominated. Perhaps just making the final five will prove to be the hardest part, after which Bomer will have the opportunity to pick up the trophy he was denied a decade ago.

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