TV World's TV Tony of the Week Goes To Sarah Paulson

With so many great performances happening on a nearly hourly basis across the television landscape, the BWW TV World staff has come together to recognize the outstanding work by TV actors in the only way that we know how, by giving them a Tony Award! Well, a BWW TV World Tony Award of the Week. And the winner for October 5th-October 11th, 2014 is...

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Sarah Paulson as Bette and Dot Tattler on AMERICAN HORROR STORY
Read Matt Tamanini's "Spoiler Alert!" column on the episode here.
Nominated by: Kara McCoy | @i_got_the_tweet

The premiere of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW offered us a brand new host of colorful characters to enjoy and, um, have nightmares about. But while John Carroll Lynch's Twisty the Clown may have proven to be an unexpectedly sinister scene stealer, Sarah Paulson's turn as conflicting conjoined twins Bette and Dot stood out to me as pretty darn exceptional. We've seen a single actor play a set of twins on screen before, but it's one thing to pull a LINDSAY Lohan in THE PARENT TRAP, and it's an entirely other to pull off what Paulson's doing.

Both Bette and Dot are almost always on screen at the same time, reacting to each other in a way that makes you forget that Paulson herself is reacting to nothing at all. I totally believe that these are two distinct people with two clearly defined personalities, sharing identical faces and one body.

So, you, Ms. Paulson deserve the first BWW TV Tony Award of the Week.

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Other Nominees:

Raúl Esparza's suits on LAW & ORDER: SVU
Nominated by: Erin Resnick | @enr702

Raúl is possibly one of the most underrated television actors. Between his role as ADA Barba on SVU and Dr. Chilton on HANNIBAL, and his four (actual) Tony nominations, Raúl is truly a triple threat. Barba has proven to be one of SVU's finest ADA's, winning cases left and right with his no-holds-barred, brutally honest work. But more than his way with words is his ability to command a room in countless different and colorful suits. He might be the first LAW & ORDER regular to actually look dapper.

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Bellamy Young as First Lady Mellie Grant on SCANDAL
Read Jennifer McHugh's recap of the episode here.
Nominated by: Jennifer McHugh | @Eponineq

The First Lady is still in the throws of depression over the death of her oldest son. What started out as day-drinking while wearing pajamas in the Oval Office and daily visits to his grave has turned into an obsession to solve this murder, even though no one else suspects foul play. Her intense vulnerability and fluctuating mental state has been remarkable to watch, and now that she has a passionate purpose to pursue, the old fiery Mellie we all know and love, can't be far behind.

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Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy on MODERN FAMILY
Read Matt Smith's recap of the episode here.
Nominate by: Matt Smith

Sarah Hyland has been killing it on MODERN FAMILY lately. The writers gave her an awesome monologue two weeks ago that really showed significant character growth and this past week she actually made a move on Andy. Though the writers regularly pull her back from displaying too much depth, and often joke about the "old Haley" ("With great hotness comes great responsibility," she says when Alex tells her that she's maturing), I truly do think Haley's maturing, and Hyland's performance has everything to do with showing us that.

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Photo Credit:
1) Sarah Paulson and Sarah Paulson: FX
2) Kelli Giddish and Raúl Esparza: Michael Parmelee | NBC
3) Bellamy Young: ABC
4) Adam Devine and Sarah Hyland: Mitchell Haaseth | ABC

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