If Gold Derby’s predictions pan out, Rhea Seehorn will be starting off 2026 with an awards bang.
Fresh off the season finale, Seehorn is tipped to win Best Drama Actress at both the Critics Choice Awards (on Jan. 4) and the Golden Globes (on Jan. 11), which would officially put Pluribus on the awards map. Created by Vince Gilligan, the freshman Apple TV show centers on Seehorn’s Carol Sturka, a fantasy romance author who somehow survives a viral apocalypse that causes almost everyone else on earth to become blissful members of a hive mind.
To date, Seehorn has only won a few critics’ prizes (plus our own Gold Derby Award) throughout her career for playing supporting character Kim Wexler on Gilligan’s prior show, Better Call Saul. A win for Pluribus would represent her first-ever trophy as a leading actress.
Drama Actress
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Keri Russell
The Diplomat
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Carrie Coon
The Gilded Age
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Bella Ramsey
The Last of Us
Seehorn has a 75 percent chance of taking home the Critics Choice Award. Her fellow nominees, in descending order of odds, are: Severance‘s Britt Lower (17 percent), Matlock‘s Kathy Bates (5 percent), The Diplomat‘s Keri Russell (1 percent), The Gilded Age‘s Carrie Coon (1 percent), and The Last of Us‘ Bella Ramsey (1 percent).
Note that Bates is the reigning CCA champion in this lead category, while Lower recently won the Emmy Award. Seehorn previously earned three Critics Choice noms for Better Call Saul as a supporting actress, in 2019, 2021, and 2023.
TV Drama Actress
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Keri Russell
The Diplomat
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Bella Ramsey
The Last of Us
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For the Golden Globes, Seehorn is out front with a 73 percent chance, followed by Lower (19 percent), Bates (5 percent), Russell (1 percent), Ramsey (1 percent), and MobLand‘s Helen Mirren (0 percent). This marks Seehorn’s first career Globe bid; apparently, it took an apocalypse for her to finally show up on their radar. Better late than never!
Seehorn has been earning raves from critics for the way she almost single-handedly carries Pluribus. There are many scenes where Carol is alone, mourning humanity or investigating what’s going on — occasionally without any dialogue. Buoyed by her performance, the show received a 98 percent at Rotten Tomatoes and an 87 score at Metacritic.
As Season 1 progressed, two supporting characters became much more prominent: Karolina Wydra‘s Zosia, a member of the hive mind whom Carol connects with; and Carlos-Manuel Vesga‘s Manousos, a normal human who wants nothing to do with the infected. Notable guest stars include Miriam Shor as Helen, Carol’s girlfriend; Jeff Hiller as Larry, a member of the hive; and John Cena as himself, who delivers some key information about the others’ eating habits.
Gilligan, a four-time Emmy winner for producing Breaking Bad (2013 and 2014) and two Better Call Saul shorts (2017 and 2020), is joined in the Pluribus writers’ room by Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock, Ariel Levine, Vera Blasi, Jenn Carroll, and Jonny Gomez. Gilligan, Smith, Zetna Fuentes, Gandja Monteiro, Adam Bernstein, and Melissa Bernstein shared directing duties on Season 1.
The Season 1 finale of Pluribus streamed Dec. 24 on Apple TV. The original series has already been picked up for Season 2.
