SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

by Vincent

Five years ago, Netflix was the king of television. Not only did they have a huge library of television shows, they were producing original content on a consistent basis. There were other streaming services like Hulu and Amazon Prime, but Netflix was the clear winner. It seemed as if the Netflix model was the future of television. But now, things are quite different. For the first time in many years, Netflix reported a loss of subscribers. And it adds to a genuine question in the future of television.

There are many streaming services now competing for Netflix's viewership. In addition, people are questioning whether Netflix series are any better than other services and channels. They are producing a lot of content, but less of it is of high quality than previously, and this combined with the fact that many series have moved to other platforms have left Netflix in a hard spot. It'll be very interesting to see where Netflix fits into the evolving TV model.

Hulu announced that it will be the dedicated subscription video on-demand destination for critically acclaimed and fan favorite series Schitt's Creek in the U.S. beginning October 3, 2022, as it will be leaving Netflix. Schitt's Creek centers on an outrageously wealthy video store magnate, Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy); his former soap-star wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara); and their two adult children – the self-described black sheep of the family David (Daniel Levy) and career socialite Alexis (Annie Murphy). When the family suddenly find themselves broke, they have no choice but to move to Schitt's Creek, a small-town Johnny once bought as a joke. Forced to live out of a motel, with their pampered lives a memory, they struggle to find jobs and relationships and, most importantly, figure out what it means to be a family in the loveable town they’ve reluctantly come to call home.

Since its debut, Schitt's Creek has garnered scores of award nominations and appeared on dozens of 'Best Of' lists. In 2020, the series made history by sweeping all Primetime Emmy® Awards comedy categories with the most wins in a single season for a comedy including Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series for Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy; Outstanding Supporting Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series for Annie Murphy and Daniel Levy; Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for Andrew Cividino and Daniel Levy; and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Daniel Levy. Schitt's Creek joins Hulu’s extensive library of hit comedies including ABC's Abbott Elementary and Home Economics, Freeform's Single Drunk Female, FX's Dave, and Originals including Only Murders in the Building, Life and Beth, How I Met Your Father, and more.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominees for the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Sarah Jessica Parker, six-time Golden Globe winner, and Taraji P. Henson, Golden Globe winner, disclosed the nominees. For the first time in the history of the Golden Globes, the nominations were announced virtually, following the current safety measures during the Covid pandemic. The 78th Golden Globes will take place on February 28, coast to coast from 5 pm to 8 pm PT/8-11 ET on NBC. The event will be hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, returning for the fourth time, after hosting in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Fey and Poehler will share duties from their respective cities, with Fey on the East Coast and Poehler on the West Coast. Fey will be live from New York’s Rainbow Room, Poehler will be live from the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, and nominees, from various locations around the world.

Nominations include Kaley Cuoco and Jane Levy being nominated for the first time, while Schitt's Creek's cast all got nominations. View the full TV portion nominations. In addition to the categories announced today, the 2021 Golden Globes will honor Jane Fonda with the Cecil B. deMille Award, and Norman Lear with the Carol Burnett Award. Lear will be the third recipient of the recently created Carol Burnett Award, which honors contributions to television.

The CW Network renewed 12 of its current scripted series for the 2021-2022 season, including its new breakout hit Walker. Additionally, The CW is ordering 5 additional episodes for this season of Walker, bringing its total episode count for 2020-2021 to 18, and 2 additional episodes of Superman & Lois, bringing its total episode count for 2020-2021 to 15. The current series being ordered for the 2021-2022 season include a second season of Walker, which recently scored The CW's most watched series premiere in 5 years, as well as All American (Season 4), Batwoman (Season 3), Charmed (Season 4), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (Season 7), Dynasty (Season 5), The Flash (Season 8), In the Dark (Season 4), Legacies (Season 4), Nancy Drew (Season 3), Riverdale (Season 6) and Roswell, New Mexico (Season 4). Specific premiere dates for each series will be announced at a later time.

by Vincent

This past Sunday was the Emmys, and I can sum it up for you using one sentence: Schitt's Creek basically won everything. Yes, the little show that could, ignored for the Academy by most of its run, nearly swept the comedy awards for its final season and picked up the much sought after Outstanding Comedy Series award. So how did the show explode in love with the Emmy voters? One word: Netflix.

It's pretty incredible for a show to win for the first time in its final season. It's only happened a handful of times before, but Schitt's Creek was a special case. The show grew in popularity steadily before rising to extreme love in its last season. It's almost a shame that the series is only now getting the love it deserves, but fear not, the show is a really well made comedy and deserves every bit of attention it gets. Here's to a great Emmys sweep and great season for Schitt's Creek.

New town. New secrets. New Little Liars. A new generation of Pretty Little Liars is coming to HBO Max, which has given a direct-to-series order for the new Max Original drama Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, from executive producer/writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and co-executive producer/writer Lindsay Calhoon Bring (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). The series is produced by Aguirre-Sacasa's Muckle Man Productions and Alloy Entertainment (Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, You) in association with Warner Bros. Television. Alloy's Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo are also executive producers of the series, which is based upon the bestselling series of books by Sara Shepard.

Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the blue-collar town of Millwood apart. Now, in the present day, a group of disparate teen girls — a brand-new set of Little Liars — find themselves tormented by an unknown Assailant and made to pay for the secret sin their parents committed two decades ago...as well as their own. In the dark, coming-of-RAGE, horror-tinged drama Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, we find ourselves miles away from Rosewood, but within the existing Pretty Little Liars universe — in a brand new town, with a new generation of Little Liars.

A pop culture phenomenon, the first Pretty Little Liars series was produced by Warner Horizon Television for Freeform/ABC Family, debuted in June 2010 and ran for seven seasons, concluding in June 2017. During its seven-year run, Pretty Little Liars ranked as the #1 scripted series on all of cable television in the teen girl demographic, and it ranks as the #1 series ever to air on Freeform/ABC Family.

Lionsgate's Debmar-Mercury announced last year that Fox Television Stations had acquired fan favorite and Primetime Emmy winner Schitt's Creek. All seasons of the acclaimed, ground-breaking, half-hour character-driven comedy created by Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy will begin airing in U.S. broadcast markets starting next week (September 28). A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Pop TV original comedy, Schitt's Creek is Pop's highest-rated series. The two-year deal with FOX stations comes as Schitt's Creek garnered four Primetime Emmy Award® nominations last year and now nine wins this year. In New York City, the comedy will air on Sundays on WWOR from 6-7pm and 11pm-12:30am. In Los Angeles, it will air on KCOP on Saturdays from 11pm-12:30am and Sundays 11pm-12am and on sister station KDOC Monday-Friday at 12:30am & 1am. Meanwhile, Comedy Central has also acquired the series for cable! Schitt's Creek has been added to Comedy Central on Fridays from 8pm-10:30pm, starting Friday, Oct. 2.

The sixth and final season aired on Pop TV and CBC earlier this year. The buzzworthy comedy follows a wealthy family who suddenly find themselves broke and forced to live in Schitt's Creek, a small town they once bought as a joke. The cast includes Emmy-winners Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, Daniel Levy, Annie Murphy, Chris Elliott, Emily Hampshire, Jennifer Robertson, Noah Reid, Dustin Milligan, Sarah Levy and Karen Robinson. Schitt's Creek centers on an outrageously wealthy video store magnate, Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy); his former soap-star wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara); and their two adult children – the self-described black sheep of the family David (Daniel Levy) and career socialite Alexis (Annie Murphy). With their pampered lives a memory, they struggle to find jobs and relationships, and most importantly, figure out what it means to be a family in the makeshift but loveable town they’ve reluctantly come to call home.

Apple announced a series order for High Desert, a new comedic half-hour series to be produced by Apple Studios that will star Academy, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette (Medium, Boyhood, Escape at Dannemora, The Act), who will also executive produce. The project reunites Arquette with DGA Award winner Ben Stiller (Escape at Dannemora), who will direct the first episode and executive produce through Red Hour Films alongside Nicky Weinstock. Molly Madden and Tom Lassally executive produce on behalf of 3 Arts Entertainment. High Desert follows Peggy (Arquette), a former addict who decides to make a new start after the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California, and makes a life-changing decision to become a private investigator. The series is created and written by Nancy Fichman (Nurse Jackie, Damages), Katie Ford (Miss Congeniality) and Jennifer Hoppe (Grace and Frankie, Nurse Jackie, Damages), who will also serve as executive producers. 

Antenna TV starts their Fall 2020 lineup on Monday, October 5 with its newest addition, Who's the Boss? airing weeknights from 5-6pm. It will replace Gimme a Break! on the weekday lineup, but that series will remain airing on weekend afternoons from 2-3pm. Growing Pains returns to the weeknight lineup airing 6-7pm, replacing Barney Miller, which will now air just Sunday nights from 3-4am. Back to Who's the Boss?, it will also air Sunday nights in primetime from 8-9pm leading into Growing Pains again from 9-10pm. Among the other schedule changes are the returns of Head of the Class (Sat 10-11am/Sun 11am-12pm) and My Two Dads (Sunday nights 4-5am), along with a second hour of Soap on Sunday mornings now from 6-8am (this means Three's a Crowd and The Ropers are off the lineup). Wings moves back to weeknights after Coach at 1am every weeknight. View the other schedule changes here.

Stunts in October are two 70th anniversary marathons and a Halloween marathon! Burns and Allen 70th Anniversary Marathon airs on Saturday, October 10 from 10AM until Sunday, October 11 at 9PM with 70 episodes of the series. The Jack Benny 70th Anniversary Marathon airs two weeks later on Saturday, October 24 from 10AM until Sunday, October 25 at 9PM, with 70 episodes of The Jack Benny Program. And the final stunt in October is the "Witch-O-Ween Bewitched Halloween Marathon" on Saturday, October 31 from 10AM to 5AM, with 40 episodes of Bewitched. Episode details for all three stunts are still to come.

November and December holiday season stunts will be announced at a later date. We do want to tease you of some returns in 2021. Both One Day at a Time (the original '70s series, of course) and The Jeffersons return to Antenna TV right at the start of 2021 on January 1. Both series premiered together on Antenna TV in spring 2015 and aired until the end of 2017. The Jeffersons then moved to MeTV in 2018 (and for now airs on sister network Decades), but now is now returning to Antenna TV! And finally, a brand new acquisition for Antenna TV sometime in 2021 will be Caroline in the City - the '90s Lea Thompson sitcom that originally aired on NBC. Much more details are to come, so stay tuned. But for now, Antenna TV's Fall 2020 schedule with Who's the Boss? starts Oct. 5.

The Television Academy celebrated the 72nd Emmy® Awards last night, recognizing excellence in primetime programming and individual achievement for the 2019-2020 television season. The 72nd Emmy® Awards were broadcast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on ABC, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and produced by Done+Dusted, Reginald Hudlin and KIMMELOT. The telecast featured awards in 23 Emmy categories, plus the Governors Award, presented by top talent from some of television's most acclaimed programs. Presenters and surprise guests included Anthony Anderson, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Ty Burrell, LaVerne Cox, America Ferrera, Morgan Freeman, Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson, Ken Jeong, Mindy Kaling, Tatiana Maslany, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bob Newhart, D-Nice, Randall Park, Issa Rae, RuPaul, Jason Sudeikis, Gabrielle Union, Lena Waithe, J.J. Watt and Oprah Winfrey. Singer-songwriter and GRAMMY®-winning artist H.E.R. made her Emmy® debut with a special "In Memoriam" performance honoring all the stars we lost this year such as Regis Philbin, Diahann Carroll and Chadwick Boseman.

Among the big winners were Watchmen with 11 wins, Schitt's Creek with 9 wins, Succession with 7 wins and The Mandalorian with 7 wins. Daniel Levy of Schitt's Creek won 4 awards for Director, Executive Producer, Performer and Writer! Schitt's Creek swept the entire major comedy categories with Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Writing, Directing, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Outstanding Comedy! View the complete list of winners. 

This week, the Emmys announced their 2020 nominations, with the expected announcement that the ceremony will be virtual. It'll be the first major awards ceremony to be held remotely (the Tonys, which usually air in June, were cancelled) so it'll be interesting to see how the academy handles a virtual awards ceremony. Here's a list of the sitcom-relevant nominees, as a refresher:

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson (black-ish)
Don Cheadle (Black Monday)
Ted Danson (The Good Place)
Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method)
Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek)
Ramy Youssef (Ramy)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate (Dead to Me)
Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me)
Catherine O'Hara (Schitt's Creek)
Issa Rae (Insecure)
Tracee Ellis Ross (black-ish)

Outstanding Comedy Series
"Curb Your Enthusiasm"
"Dead to Me"
"The Good Place"
"Insecure"
"The Kominsky Method"
"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"
"Schitt's Creek"
"What We Do in the Shadows"

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”)
William Jackson Harper (“The Good Place”)
Alan Arkin (“The Kominsky Method”)
Sterling K. Brown (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)
Tony Shalhoub (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)
Mahershala Ali (“Ramy”)
Kenan Thompson (“Saturday Night Live”)
Dan Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”)

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Betty Gilpin (“GLOW”)
D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”)
Yvonne Orji (“Insecure”)
Alex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)
Marin Hinkle (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)
Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”)
Cecily Strong (“Saturday Night Live”)
Annie Murphy (“Schitt’s Creek”)

All in all, the first thing that popped out to me was the sheer number of nominations for Schitt's Creek in its final season. Schitt's Creek is a show that grew more popular very gradually through-out its runs, and the show scored 15 nominations in its final season, its highest easily. It's pretty rare for a comedy series to actually increase in nominations (typically they start off very buzzy and gradually fade in Emmy voters' interests, such as what happened with shows like 30 Rock and Modern Family) but Schitt's Creek bucks the trend. It also bucks the Emmy voters' trend of favoring streaming services, as Schitt's Creek (a cable sitcom) out nominated streaming favorites like Dead to Me and GLOW. Still, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2018's winner) also racked a lot of nominations, so the Emmy's love of streaming sitcoms hasn't completed faded.

Broadcast television continues to be gradually squeezed out by the Emmys, with The Good Place as the only nominee from a broadcast network in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. (Brooklyn Nine-Nine and black-ish scored nominations in acting categories but not in the series categories.) Previous Emmy darling Modern Family was not nominated for its final season (not surprising as the Emmy's love for the series faded in the show's later seasons), but FX's critically acclaimed fantasy comedy What We Do in the Shadows did score a handful of nominations. It's an interesting year for the Emmys - not just because they'll be remote, but because they nominated a lot of surprise choices this year, and I'll be very interested to see how they play out (virtually).

Game Show Network, the leader in game shows and competitive entertainment, has announced Emmy® Award winner Leah Remini as host of new pop culture crossword game show, People Puzzler. The half-hour original series is anticipated to premiere in early 2021. In People Puzzler, three lucky contestants will put their pop culture knowledge to the test to complete iconic, People Puzzler crosswords. The player who has won the most points after three rounds will move on to the Fast Puzzle Bonus Round where they will have the opportunity to win a cash prize Actress, author, producer, and television personality Leah Remini is perhaps most recognized as Carrie Heffernan on the long-running CBS comedy, The King of Queens. She was recently seen in the romantic comedy, Second Act, with Jennifer Lopez.

ABC has given a full-season order to Wednesday night comedy Schooled. The additional order brings the season total to 22 episodes for Schooled, the The Goldbergs spinoff, in its sophomore season on the network. The series is from Sony Pictures Television and ABC Studios. On the next episode of Schooled, "The Pokemon Society," Coach Mellor encourages Toby (guest star Mason McNulty) to be competitive in CB's Pokemon Club and becomes an overbearing sports-type father. Meanwhile, Lainey supplements her salary as a teacher by working at the local video store and learns an important lesson tonight, Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC.

Schooled, set in 1990-something, follows the hilarious faculty of William Penn Academy, led by music teacher and WP graduate Lainey Lewis (AJ Michalka), Principal John Glascott (Tim Meadows), Coach Rick Mellor (Bryan Callen) and young, enthusiastic English teacher CB (Brett Dier). Despite their eccentricities and crazy personal lives, these teachers are heroes to their students.

Ring in the new year with the Rose family by catching up on your favorite comedy series Schitt's Creek. Ahead of its sixth and final season, Pop TV is reliving the entire critically acclaimed hit comedy series, Schitt's Creek. All 66 episodes of the Emmy® nominated series will air back-to-back beginning Tuesday, December 31, 2019 at 12 pm ET/PT until Wednesday, January 1, 2020 at 9:30 pm ET/PT. The final season of Schitt's Creek premieres Tuesday, January 7, 2020 at 9 p.m. ET/PT now on Pop TV. Co-created by Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy, Schitt's Creek is a half-hour, single-camera comedy starring an ensemble cast including Emmy-nominated Eugene Levy, Emmy-nominated Catherine O'Hara, Daniel Levy, Annie Murphy, Chris Elliott, Emily Hampshire, Jennifer Robertson, Noah Reid, Dustin Milligan, Sarah Levy and Karen Robinson.

Pop TV announced "Visit Schitt's Creek" - an immersive pop-up that will put fans directly into their favorite scenes in Schitt's Creek, including Cafe Tropical, the Rosebud Motel, Rose Apothecary and more, bringing the beloved town to life. The free-but-limited-ticket experience will take place in Los Angeles and New York this holiday season. The pop-up will invite fans into the Emmy(R)-nominated show's world with not just recreations of its most iconic sets, but also interactive photo experiences, takeaways, access to limited merchandise and more. Specific dates, locations, ticketing and more information for Pop TV Presents: "Visit Schitt's Creek" will be available soon on www.visitschittscreek.com.

Schitt's Creek's sixth and final season returns with 14 new episodes on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020 at 9:00 PM, ET/PT, and all five seasons are currently available on the network's app, PopNow, at POPTV.com and via cable and satellite video on demand. Co-created by Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy, Schitt's Creek is a half-hour, single-camera comedy starring an ensemble cast including Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Daniel Levy, Annie Murphy, Chris Elliott, Emily Hampshire, Jennifer Robertson, Noah Reid, Dustin Milligan, Sarah Levy and Karen Robinson.

Comedy Central (+5% with P18-49), Paramount Network (+7% with P18-49) and TV Land (+7% with P25-54, +4% with P18-49), led by President Kent Alterman, all recorded share growth for the 2018-19 Viacom fiscal year, which closed on September 30. All three brands also featured top-rated and critically acclaimed original programming throughout the fiscal year (October 2018 - September 2019):

South Park (Comedy Central) is the #1 rated cable comedy of the fiscal year.
Younger (TV Land) is the #1 ad-supported cable comedy among W18-49 and W25-54 during the fiscal year. Season six holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. At TV Land, the brand recorded its highest rated fiscal year since 2013 with P25-54. In addition to the strong ratings of Younger, the brand saw great performance among acquisitions including Two and a Half Men and The King of Queens.
Yellowstone (Paramount Network) was the #1 scripted series across cable and broadcast TV in the key P18-49 and P25-54 demos and the most-watched 2019 summer series on cable TV among total viewers. It's also the brand's most-watched scripted series ever and Viacom's most-watched scripted series since 2010. Season two holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
South Side (Comedy Central) is the #1 new cable comedy of the fiscal year among African American viewers. It is 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
I Am Patrick Swayze (Paramount Network) is cable's #1 personality documentary of 2019.
Comedy Central Stand-Up holds six of the top-10 rated stand-up specials from the fiscal year.