Donald Glover is way out in front to defend his Best Comedy Actor Emmy for “Atlanta.” Should he go back-to-back, Glover would become the first black performer to win the category more than once.

Glover is only the second black Best Comedy Actor winner, following in Robert Guillaume‘s footsteps. Guillaume twice won for playing Benson DuBois on “Soap” (1979), in supporting, and “Benson” (1985), in lead, and was also the first black Best Comedy Supporting Actor champ. The late star prevailed in lead on his fifth and final nomination for “Benson,” so he never had a chance to defend his crown. And then it was 32 years before Glover triumphed, with nine unsuccessful bids in between, not counting Anthony Anderson’s nomination last year for “Black-ish.”

SEE How to watch Best Comedy Actor Emmy episodes for Anthony Anderson, Ted Danson, Larry David, Donald Glover, Bill Hader, William H. Macy

Glover has the support of 11 of our 15 Experts for his white-hot second season, which earned 16 nominations. Also helping him is the fact that the category likes repeat winners. Since 2000, only five people have won this category just once: Michael J. Fox (“Spin City”), Eric McCormack (“Will & Grace”), Ray Romano (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), Ricky Gervais (“Extras”) and Jon Cryer (“Two and a Half Men”). You can asterisk Cryer’s victory since the Emmys already awarded him in supporting before he moved to lead following Charlie Sheen‘s meltdown. The rest have all won at least two (Kelsey Grammer won his fourth and final Emmy for “Frasier” in 2004), which bodes well for Glover.

Even if Glover doesn’t claim multiple trophies in this category, he can be the first black person to do so in directing. Glover was the first black Best Comedy Directing champ last year, but he’s currently in fourth, trailing the iconic “Atlanta” episode “Teddy Perkins,” which was directed by Hiro Murai.

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