‘Schitt’s Creek’ Emmy sweep
Quirky Canadian show dominates comedy categories
“Schitt’s Creek,” the little Canadian show about a fish-out-of-water family, had a big night at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, sweeping the comedy category with best series honors and awards for its stars, including Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy. O’Hara accepted the lead actress award virtually during the pandemicsafe ceremony, which included more than 100 long-distance video feeds with nominees.
LOS ANGELES — “Schitt’s Creek,” the little Canadian show about a fish-out-of-water family, had a big night at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, sweeping the comedy category with best series honors and awards for its stars, including Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy.
“Our show at its core is about the transformational effects of love and acceptance, and this is something we need more now than ever before,” said co-creator and star Daniel Levy, who encouraged people to register and vote to achieve that goal.
O’Hara accepted the lead actress award virtually in the pandemic-safe ceremony.
“Though these are the strangest of days, may you have as much joy being holed up in a room or two with your family as I had with my dear Roses,” O’Hara said, surrounded in a decorated room by mask-wearing co-stars who play the Rose family members.
Levy called it “ironical that the strangest role I ever played lands me an Emmy for a comedy performance. I have to seriously question what I’ve been doing” for the past 50 years.
Moments later, Levy’s son Daniel won the award for comedy writing for an episode of “Schitt’s Creek,” then shared a directing award and captured the supporting actor comedy trophy.
The supporting actress trophy went to his co-star Annie Murphy
Daniel Levy thanked his father and O’Hara for teaching an extended “master class” in comedy.
Host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show with a monologue that appeared to be defiantly delivered in front of a packed, cheering theater — until it was revealed they were clips from past Emmy shows.
“Of course, I’m here all alone.
Of course, we don’t have an audience,” he said. “This isn’t a MAGA rally. It’s the Emmys.”
With more than 100 longdistance video feeds with nominees ahead, “what could possibly go right?”
During Saturday’s virtual Emmys for technical and other honors, guest acting honors went to Eddie Murphy and Maya
Rudolph for “Saturday Night Live,” Cherry Jones for “Succession” and Ron Cephas Jones for “This Is Us.”
HBO’s limited series “Watchmen” is the leading nominee. Its star Regina King won best actress in a limited series or TV movie for her role as Angela Abar, aka the masked hero Sister Night. It’s the fourth Emmy in six years for King, all of them for limited series. “Succession,” “Ozark” and “The Mandalorian” were vying
for the drama series crown.
“Euphoria” star Zendaya could become the youngest winner in the drama actress category at age
24 (topping Jodie Comer, who was 26 when she won last year for “Killing Eve”).
The producers of Sunday’s broadcast have said gaffes could occur. Kimmel was on stage at LA’s Staples Center, central command for camera feeds relayed from 130 nominees socially distanced at home or elsewhere in 10 countries and 20 cities.
Morgan Freeman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, D-Nice, Patrick Stewart and Oprah Winfrey were among those set to take part in the show, which also promised the oddity of a live appearance by an alpaca named Isabella.
Other recent awards shows, including the BET Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards, bowed to the coronavirus with a mix of taped and live segments. How the Emmys fare may influence Hollywood’s awards
season.
It’s difficult to imagine Emmy Awards more representative of their time. The ceremony is virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nominees include a record number of Black actors and other artists at a moment of racial reckoning. And a dizzying array of TV platforms are jockeying for honors, including streaming services that weren’t around to compete in the last Emmys.
The creative Emmys that were awarded over five days, culminating Saturday, underscore the point: Awards have been collected by 29 outlets representing cable channels, streaming services and broadcast networks. So far, longtime leader HBO and rising service Netflix are tied with 19 awards each, followed by Disney+ and NBC with eight honors apiece.