Performer Of The Year: The 20 Finalists

In a year when we wanted to spend as little time in the real world as possible, there was certainly no shortage of stellar TV performances that helped us escape.

For the past 12 months, our Performer of the Week column has honored the small screen's most breathtaking work, recognizing actors from broadcast, cable and streaming series as they moved us to tears or brought on belly laughs. But now, we face a big question: Who's the Performer of the Year?

In the list below, we've narrowed down this excellent year of acting to 20 finalists, which will double as a "ballot" of sorts. (Note: The contenders comprised of multiple co-stars, such as Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett, compete as and will be considered one finalist.)

On Friday, Dec. 18, we will crown one of the nominees (and only one!) our 2020 Performer of the Year, succeeding the 2019 victors, Unbelievable's Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever and Toni Collette. And while our esteemed panel of judges won't necessarily be swayed by the Comments section, we're itching to see if our 20 finalists line up with your favorite performances of the year.

Scroll through the list below to see who's in the running, then drop a comment with your thoughts on who might be named Performer of the Year 2020.

Still ahead in TVLine's Year in Review: Quotes of the Year, Most Heartbreaking Character Deaths, TV's Biggest Scene Stealers and much more!

Whatever you thought of real-life Conservative firebrand Phyllis Schlafly, you had to be bowled over by Oscar winner Blanchett's portrayal of her in FX on Hulu's limited series. The moment we can't stop thinking about was when Phyllis got passed over for a seat in Reagan's cabinet. Blanchett somehow managed to communicate her character's inner collapse without dropping a note of joviality from her voice or an inch from her patrician posture — a perfect cap for a show that succeeded largely because of Blanchett's note-perfect portrayal.

Season 4 of FX's crime anthology saw rival gangs trading bullets in a bloody turf war, but the scariest character by far was aw-shucks nurse Oraetta Mayflower, with Buckley concealing her murderous intentions behind a sunny façade of Minnesota Nice. The vengeful Oraetta offed multiple victims via deliveries of poisoned pastries, and Buckley used the same formula — sweet on the outside, lethal on the inside — to create one of Fargo's most fascinating villains yet.

Amazon's puzzle-box thriller teased our brains with shocking twists and tantalizing clues, but ultimately, it was Chau who broke our hearts. As ladder-climbing corporate exec Audrey Temple, Chau poignantly showed us the tragic downside of Geist's memory-wiping drug through Audrey's ill-fated love story with Janelle Monáe's Alex. Audrey's grand ambitions blew up in her face and torpedoed her only meaningful relationship, and Chau made sure her bittersweet fate stuck with us long after all the twists ran out.

So natural an actress is the creator of HBO's superb new dramedy that she frequently made us forget we were watching a performance and not just observing Arabella, the lovable mess set reeling by a rape she at first couldn't recall. And because Coel made of us heavily invested voyeurs instead of mere viewers, our journey through Arabella's experience was extra intense, extra disturbing and, ultimately, extra rewarding. In other words, Coel did exactly what the series' title warned us she might.

We were all waiting to see how Netflix's royal drama would handle the tale of Princess Diana, and it didn't disappoint, with Corrin pushing past the tabloid headlines to deliver a captivating, heart-wrenching performance. The little-known actress captured Diana's youthful exuberance as she tentatively stepped inside Buckingham Palace as Prince Charles' new girlfriend, and she also channeled Diana's crushing loneliness as she and Charles began to drift apart. It's not easy playing an icon, but Corrin made it look easy... and stole the spotlight from seasoned veterans like Olivia Colman and Gillian Anderson in the process.

HBO Max's adaptation of the Chris Bohjalian novel would not work if we weren't on some level rooting for Cassie Bowden, the poster girl for extremely bad decisions. But to her credit, Cuoco makes the character as sympathetic as she is recklessly impulsive; Cassie's near-constant anguish make us want to have the morally casual alcoholic's back. On the lighter side, whenever Cassie tries to rationalize (or conceal) her exploits with gal pals Annie (Zosia Mamet) and Megan (Rosie Perez), Cuoco leans into her vaunted sitcom skill set and trades deliciously tart banter. First Class work, all around.

Balk if you must at our pairing of the Hulu drama's leads in one entry; we couldn't bear to see Marianne and Connell parted yet again, even in a caption. Besides, the actors' accomplishment really is very much a shared one. Together, they took the couple down a torturous path, from secret hookups to true love, along the way restoring even our hope that no one is ever too broken to be made whole again.

These two royal rulers made a perfect pair on Hulu's brilliantly bawdy historical comedy, which put a fresh spin on the tale of Russian empress Catherine the Great. Fanning was luminous as Catherine, displaying a backbone of steel as she fought tooth and nail against the brutal and sexist standards of the time, and Hoult delivered one of the year's most hilarious performances as the proudly dumb Russian emperor Peter — the epitome of pampered privilege run amok.

The Oscar and Emmy winner delivered an astoundingly raw turn as Grace Fraser's life came (ahem) undone, skillfully dramatizing every beat of the character's rapid descent into hell. Her work in the HBO thriller's second episode — particularly its intense closing scene — was especially masterful. During a confrontation with duplicitous husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant), Kidman subtly let the audience know that Grace was, yes, petrified, but also relieved to hear him deny being a murderer. When she nonetheless phoned 911 to turn the bastard in, we marveled at how Kidman's measured tone unraveled into hysteria as the weight of the situation finally hit her. Yes, Kidman's Undoing wardrobe was next level, but it paled in comparison to the work of art that was her performance.

We weren't sure at first about Hulu rebooting the music-obsessed rom-com as a TV series, but Kravitz's effortlessly cool, warmly endearing lead performance made us forget all about John Cusack. As romantically challenged record store owner Rob, Kravitz showed off a wry sense of humor we didn't get to see from her on Big Little Lies, and Rob's attempts to revive her failed relationship with ex Mac plucked at our heartstrings, too. Hulu's cancellation unfortunately made it a one-hit wonder, but we'll still be bopping our heads to Kravitz's work for years to come.

The premise of NBC's musical dramedy — in which Levy's Zoey hears other people's thoughts as elaborate musical numbers — is a little out there, to be sure. But throughout its first season, Levy brought a skepticism and exasperation to Zoey that made her new abilities feel grounded and believable. As Zoey navigated a love triangle, attempted to raise her game at work and, later in the season, mourned her father's death, Levy nailed every emotional beat of Zoey's complicated personal life — and that's to say nothing of her astonishing turn in Episode 8, a demanding, Zoey-centric hour that proved Levy does some of the best physical comedy in the biz.

It can't be easy to act next to bloodthirsty forest demons and decapitated ghosts, but amid the swirl of CGI terrors served up each week by HBO's fantastical horror drama, both Smollett and Majors made it look easy. They also did some of the heaviest lifting in terms of keeping the show grounded in intense emotions, both those dredged up by the racist reality of 1950s Chicago and those called up by Leti and Tic's burgeoning romantic relationship — a super(natural) achievement, indeed.

It came as no surprise that the Season 3 arc surrounding Wendy's bipolar younger brother Ben ended tragically. What did surprise us was how hard we took his death — and credit for that emotional gut punch goes to Pelphrey. The actor turned in a consistently dynamic performance all season long, but it was his work in the penultimate episode — during Ben's ill-fated, life-ending road trip with his big sis (Laura Linney) — where Pelphrey's impressive range was on full display. With Ben's behavior varying wildly from scene to scene and moment to moment, the two-time Daytime Emmy winner grounded each emotional beat — from joyful innocence to genuine confusion to paralyzing fear to utter sadness — with searing authenticity.

In Season 3 of the Paramount Network hit, Beth Dutton warned the land grabber eyeing her daddy's property, "You are the trailer park, I am the tornado." But really, she could've said it to anyone, given the way her portrayer laid waste to everybody in her path. Whether Beth was locking horns with formidable new foes or decimating loathed brother Jamie, force of nature Reilly took us on a thrill ride that we never wanted to end. And when she revealed Beth's vulnerability, admitting to true love Rip that she wanted to marry, the actress reduced us to rubble as utterly as any twister could've.

The moment it was announced that Ruffalo would portray twin brothers in HBO's miniseries, we suspected one of the year's best performances was in the works — and yet, we were still blown away by what the actor accomplished in six harrowing episodes. Perhaps the most impressive feat of Ruffalo's double duty was that it never felt gimmicky; in playing both Dominick and Thomas Birdsey, the latter of whom struggled with schizophrenia, Ruffalo carefully crafted two men so different in their demeanors and dispositions, we nearly forgot the same actor was behind each brother.

As hyper-competent lawyer Kim Wexler, Seehorn has been quietly delivering one of the best performances on TV for years now, and this year, she stopped being quiet and stepped confidently into the spotlight. Kim doubled down on her commitment to Jimmy with a no-frills wedding, fully embraced her dark side and even took down a bloodthirsty drug lord with a flawless legal argument. Jimmy's lucky to have her... and we're lucky to watch Seehorn, too.

Homelander may be the most hated person on the Amazon Prime drama (at least according to Butcher), but we couldn't love Starr's performance more. Whether the supe is coming on to his own doppelgänger or hopelessly trying to bond with his son, the actor brings mesmerizing intensity to every scene. Starr was particularly powerful in the Season 2 finale, giving viewers a rare glimpse of Homelander's vulnerable side as he laid eyes on his mutilated girlfriend. Then, when Ryan chose Butcher over biological dad Homelander, Starr exploded in a complex display of disbelieving laughter and hysterical tears. Throughout the season, we were terrified of what Homelander might do, but we couldn't take our eyes off Starr for even a second.

The Apple TV+ comedy was veritable chicken soup for the soul during this dismal year — and Sudeikis deserves much of the credit for its success. The Saturday Night Live vet took a potentially one-note character — who, lest we forget, was originally conceived as part of an NBC Sports ad campaign — and made him feel whole. The wide-eyed coach was no longer just someone to laugh at, but someone to root for, and someone we could feel for. So when Ted's impending divorce resulted in a full-blown panic attack, exposing a side of the happy-go-lucky Yank we had yet to see, it didn't feel out of place. The character work Sudeikis had done up until that point made it feel organic, and earned.

Having previously hinted at her potential — in movies such as Split and Emma, and with a few episodes of Peaky Blinders — Taylor-Joy met and wonderfully surpassed every expectation as troubled chess prodigy Beth Harmon in the acclaimed Netflix mini. Whether assigning awkward Beth a specific speaking cadence and gait, or carefully surveying every chess board with her all-seeing Keane eyes, Taylor-Joy inhabited the complicated character from head to toe, and the totality of the performance was no less than engrossing.

Watching the veteran actress tear through the fifth and final season of the OWN drama was nothing short of a religious experience. Whitfield was on fire as Lady Mae grappled not only with the sins of the past but the uncertainty of the future. And she packed into her character's series-ending, spinoff-beginning sermon so much gloriously modulated passion that she didn't have to ask, "Can I get an amen?" We gladly gave her not just one, but all the amens.