Appearing on The Tonight Show Wednesday, Kelsey Grammer claimed he was overlooked by Emmy voters for his excellent work on Boss mainly because he's a Republican. In the series the 57-year-old thesp plays a shady fictional Chicago mayor facing progressive dementia.
The statement came after Jay Leno asked him why he won a Golden Globe for the Starz drama but failed to score an Emmy nomination.
"Yeah, it's hard to figure," said Grammer. "It may have to do with several things, honestly, but I think it's possible. I mean, I'm a declared out-of-the-closet Republican in Hollywood."
Given that Grammer has scored 14 Emmy nominations for such hit shows as Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons and Wings and won five trophies previously, it's hard to fathom that his politics played a major role in the snub.But the actor insisted otherwise.
"Do I believe it's possible that some young person, young voting actor—or even older voting member for the Emmys—would sit there and go, 'Yeah, that's a great performance, but oooooooh, I just hate everything he stands for'? I don't believe that's possible," Grammer noted sarcastically.
He added that in his view he's been persona non grata ever since he publicly declared his conservative bona fides back in 2006 following his last Emmy win (and has since hinted he'd consider running in real life for mayor of New York!).
"It's nothing personal. I've been overlooked because the work is not up to standard," he deadpanned.
Leno countered with a more likely explanation.
"You know what it is? You're on Starz, and that's not an obscure network but you have to search to find it," replied the funnyman.
Leno's got a point. Despite being a critical fave, the fact is Boss airs on a premium cable network and has attracted less than stellar ratings.
Boss' second season premieres on Friday at 9 p.m.
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To be perfectly honest I never even heard of this show before he won the Golden Globe for it and before this article I didn't know what it was about or what channel it was on.