Canada and HBO sweep the Emmys

Illustration by Udeshi Seneviratne

‘Schitt’s Creek’ sweeps comedy categories during fun awards
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

The coronavirus pandemic is still happening and many of the award shows that happened in the past few months were either pre-taped or were presented with no audience. During the pandemic, a lot of people caught up on shows that they were behind on since not a lot of shows will be on this fall. The Emmy Awards this year, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, were surprisingly very fun and set the standard of what award shows should look like during the pandemic.

Because of social distancing measures, the awards ceremony happened in the middle of the Staples Center on an elaborate set that still maintained the atmosphere of the usual awards. There were a lot of references to the many current major events throughout the show: Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park bringing in an alpaca and talking about the transmission rate of the coronavirus between them and humans, Jason Sudeikis getting tested while presenting a category, and Anthony Anderson pressuring Kimmel to say “black lives matter.”

When someone received an award, a staff member would give the award to a person in a hazmat suit. Schitt’s Creek swept the Canadian Screen Awards earlier this year for their last season, and at the Emmys did something that no other comedy has done before: sweeping the comedy categories with nine awards. It also won awards for its main stars including Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, his son Dan Levy, and Annie Murphy.

Schitt’s Creek might be the greatest Canadian show of all time if success at the Emmy Awards is indicative of anything. It is a show that I like to watch which addresses the LGBTQ+ community in the later seasons. This might lead to more Canadian shows being nominated next year including perhaps Kim’s Convenience, Transplant (the first season is currently airing on NBC), and Coroner.

The entire country got must have gotten very excited that Kimmel made a lot of Canadian jokes during the first hour. While Netflix had the most nominations this year, HBO still swept the awards in the rest of the categories which shows that they can still make great content post-Game of Thrones. Succession won Best Drama and Last Week Tonight won Best Variety Show again.

The miniseries version of Watchmen won Best Miniseries as well as Best Actress in a Miniseries for Regina King and it might be back this season. HBO also won awards for Euphoria with Best Actress in a Drama for Zendaya and Best Actor in a Miniseries for Mark Ruffalo for his performance in I Know This Much is True. Netflix won awards for Ozark for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for Julia Garner for the second year in a row and Unorthodox for Best Writing of a Miniseries.

Apple TV+ had success with The Morning Show where it won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for Billy Crudup who plays the producer who puts Bradley in the show and RuPaul’s Drag Race won Best Reality Show again. The outcome of the Emmy Awards this year lightened the load on which shows to watch and might lead to Kimmel hosting the Academy Awards again.