When the Emmy nominations are announced on Tuesday morning, July 13, don’t look for “Schitt’s Creek” to be cited anywhere. Why? Because even though many folks are still discovering this Pop TV family comedy for the first time thanks to Netflix streaming, it actually went off the air last season, making it ineligible for 2021 Emmys. That’s great news for freshman comedies like “Ted Lasso,” “Hacks,” “The Flight Attendant,” “Girls5Eva,” etc.
At last year’s kudos, the heartwarming Canadian laffter took home a historic seven trophies on the Primetime broadcast. It won every single one of the comedy categories — series, actress (Catherine O’Hara), actor (Eugene Levy), supporting actor (Dan Levy), supporting actress (Annie Murphy), writing and directing — a first for any TV show. “Schitt’s Creek” told the story of a rich family who loses everything and moves to a tiny, blue-collar town in the middle of nowhere.
The series was skunked by the Television Academy for its first four seasons, finally breaking through in 2019 with four Emmy bids: series, actor, actress and costumes. For its final season, the show landed a whopping 15 noms, making it the second most-nominated comedy of the year after “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” In addition to its seven wins on the main broadcast, it claimed two more at the Creative Arts: casting and costumes.
So why did it take six long years for the show to finally be embraced by the Emmys? Netflix started airing reruns of “Schitt’s Creek” in 2017, which allowed the quirky comedy to find an entirely new audience who’d never even heard of Pop TV. Word of mouth continued to build with each passing year, as eager fans binged the latest season as soon as it was added to the menu. Some folks no doubt even thought it was a Netflix original series.
But the Emmys weren’t the only ones at fault. The Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Critics Choice and TCA Awards also ignored “Schitt’s Creek” for most of its run, until this year when it claimed major trophies at all of them. In fact, O’Hara just became the fourth person in history to sweep all five major TV acting awards in one season, following Sarah Paulson (“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”), Michelle Williams (“Fosse/Verdon”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”).
With “Schitt’s Creek” ineligible at the 2021 Emmys, many slots are open for new and returning laffers to squeak into. According to our Best Comedy Series predictions, shows to watch out for include “Ted Lasso,” “The Flight Attendant,” “Hacks,” “The Kominsky Method,” “Pen15,” “Black-ish,” “Girls5Eva,” “Master of None,” “Cobra Kai” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.” What do you think will win?
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