Friday, July 23, 2021
Fri-Yay: 2021 Emmy Nominations Heavy on New Comedies, Light on Traditional Sitcoms; That Damn Michael Che Gets a Second Season

by Vincent
The 2021 Emmy nominations were announced last week, and there are six series up for the Outstanding Comedy Series nominations. Those series are: black-ish, Cobra Kai, Emily in Paris, Hacks, The Flight Attendant, The Kominsky Method, Pen15 and Ted Lasso. If you haven't heard of most of these shows, you may not be alone - almost all of these series are either new or haven't been nominated previously. It's a fresh group of new nominees now that previous Emmy favorites like Modern Family, The Good Place, and Schitt's Creek have ended, and other favorites like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel did not produce episodes during the eligibility period this year. Not only is it heavy on new series, but it's light on what one might call traditional sitcoms. Really, only black-ish can be called a traditional comedy, while the other shows are more in the "dramedy" category.
Because of this, it's really hard to guess which shows will win the Outstanding Comedy Series award. Traditionally, the Emmys like to award traditional comedies over "dramadies", although that's been changing with shows like Fleabag and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel taking home the top prize in recent years. Furthermore, not a single series nominated has previously won the award (although black-ish has been nominated many times). It sort of feels like a year where the Emmys struggled to pick series to get behind - reflecting what an overall down year it's been for sitcoms. It'll be interesting to see which direction the Emmys go in, because at this point I truly have no idea.
HBO Max has renewed the Max Original comedy series That Damn Michael Che for a second season. The series debuted in May of this year and stars Michael Che (Saturday Night Live). Season one is available to stream now. Season one of this groundbreaking new original comedy series uses sketches and vignettes to illustrate what it feels like to experience various everyday situations including racial profiling, unemployment, falling in love and more, from Michael's perspective.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, June 24
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 23)
Tuesday, June 24
- Tiffany Haddish (The Last O.G./The Carmichael Show) - Catch Tiffany on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Alan Tudyk (Suburgatory) - Alan appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Jay Pharoah (White Famous/Champaign ILL) - Jay is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Frankie Grande (Henry Danger/Danger Force) - Frankie stops by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Jason Mantzoukas (Big Mouth/No Activity/The League) - Jason appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Jason Ritter (Another Period/The Class) and Joel Kim Booster (Loot/Shrill) - Jason and Joel are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Matty Matheson (The Bear) - Matty chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Brandy Norwood (Zoe Ever After/The Game/Moesha/Thea) - Brandy and Monica talk about The Boy is Mine Tour on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
- Allison Williams (Girls) - Allison talks about M3GAN 2.0 on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Niecy Nash-Betts (Reno 911!/Getting On/The Soul Man/Do Not Disturb) - Niecy guest co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
06/06 - Shoresy - Season 2
06/17 - Looney Tunes - Collector's Vault - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
07/08 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
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