Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek cleans up at Emmy Awards.
BELOVED CANADIAN SERIES NEEDS JUST ONE HOUR TO SWEEP SUNDAY’S VIRTUAL EMMY AWARDS
LOS ANGELES • Schitt’s Creek wasn’t just a big winner during the first hour of Sunday’s Emmy Awards — it was the only winner.
The wildly popular Canadian TV series — which wrapped this year after its sixth season — landed the first seven prizes of the night, sweeping all of the comedy categories.
Along with the major comedy prize — best comedy series — the CBC sitcom (which airs on Pop TV in the U. S.) scored the trophies for best comedy actor ( star Eugene Levy), comedy actress ( Catherine O’hara), writing for a comedy series ( Levy’s son Daniel Levy), directing for a comedy series (Andrew Cividino/ Daniel Levy), supporting actor ( Daniel Levy) and supporting actress ( Annie Murphy) all within the first 60 minutes of the broadcast.
“The internet is about to turn on me, I’m so sorry,” Daniel Levy joked while accepting one of his many prizes at a swanky — and socially distant — Schitt’s Creek cast party at an Ontario restaurant.
“To play David Rose, this has been the greatest experience of my life,” he said.
O’hara won the first award of the night, announced by Jennifer Aniston after the envelope was “sanitized” by host Jimmy Kimmel — which meant burning it.
“May you have as much joy being holed up in a room with your family, as I did with my dear Roses,” O’hara said.
Virtual Emmy Awards host Kimmel appeared on stage with a laugh track and audience footage. The crowd may have been missing, but the jokes were not.
“The world may be terrible, but TV has never been better,” he said.
The coronavirus pandemic meant no red carpet and no physical audience for the three- hour show broadcast live on ABC. Instead, producers sent camera kits and microphones to all the nominees.
Ahead of the ceremony, Kimmel made fun of the “anything can happen” nature of the show.
“It’s all the stars and half the glamour,” he said in a promotional video, showing the comedian wearing gloves and spraying an Emmy statuette with sanitizer.
“No one goes home a loser. They’ll all be at home!” he added, showing video of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan under her stairs and Insecure actress Issa Rae behind her sofa.
“What could possibly go wrong? It’s sort of like walking a tightrope,” said Emmy co- producer Ian Stewart ahead of the ceremony. “It’s not stuffy. It’s not staged. We know that people, for instance, are having their own Emmys pyjamas made.”
For the awards themselves, HBO’S alternative reality show Watchmen, infused with racial themes, was the favourite to take the best limited series on Sunday, along with actress Regina King.
“I think it’s Watchmen all the way on Sunday,” said Gerrad Hall, senior TV editor at Entertainment Weekly. “It was a monumental series from the writing, performing, directing and technical aspects.”
In drama, Netflix, which dominated nominations with a record 160 total nods, was hoping thriller Ozark will bring the streaming platform its first best drama series Emmy.
One of the night’s biggest cliffhangers was between Ozark star Laura Linney and Jennifer Aniston ( The Morning Show) for best drama actress, awards pundits said ahead of the show.