This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The award is presented to the best performance by a lead actor in a television comedy series. Beginning with the 18th Primetime Emmy Awards, leading actors in comedy have competed alone. However, these comedic performances included actors from miniseries, telefilms, and guest performers competing against main cast competitors. Such instances are marked below:

# – Indicates a performance in a Miniseries or Television film, prior to the category's creation.

– Indicates a performance in a Miniseries or Television film, prior to the category's creation. § – Indicates a performance as a guest performer, prior to the category's creation.

Winners and nominations [ edit ]

1950s [ edit ]

1960s [ edit ]

1970s [ edit ]

1980s [ edit ]

1990s [ edit ]

2000s [ edit ]

2010s [ edit ]

Total awards by network [ edit ]

NBC – 26

CBS – 19

ABC – 11 USA – 3

Amazon – 2 HBO – 2

FX – 1

Superlatives [ edit ]

Programs with multiple awards [ edit ]

4 awards

3 awards

2 awards

Multiple awards [ edit ]

Multiple nominations [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

Notes [ edit ]

a b c d e f g h i Early Emmy ceremonies did not have genre-specific acting categories.