SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

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.

Now it's COZI TV's turn for the January 2020 schedule round-up. They will be adding Roseanne to the lineup and bringing back Charlie's Angels, later seasons of two-hour Columbo, Starsky & Hutch and The Munsters! Shows expiring are Adam-12, Dragnet and the early years of Columbo, as all these are going to MeTV. Shows taking a breather in January are Kojak, Ironside, McCloud, McMillan & Wife, The A-Team, The Lone Ranger and Lassie. The new schedule includes Roseanne airing Sundays through Fridays from 9-11pm, The Munsters weeknights from 7-8pm and Sundays from 5-7pm, while Charlie's Angels will air weekdays at 9am and Saturdays from 3-6pm. '70s staple Starsky & Hutch will air Saturdays from 12pm-3pm. Other series airing are The Office weeknights from 11pm-12am and Sundays from 11am-5pm, a triple shot of Little House from 4-7pm and Frasier remains weeknights from 8-9pm. View the full COZI TV January 2020 schedule.

Amazon Studios announced that it has ordered a fourth season of the Emmy and Golden Globe-Award winning comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The third season premiered Friday, Dec. 6 on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel received two Golden Globe nominations this week, for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy, and for star Rachel Brosnahan for Best Performance by an Actress in a Series, Musical or Comedy.

In Season Three of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge and Susie discover that life on tour with Shy is glamorous but humbling, and they learn a lesson about show business they'll never forget. Joel struggles to support Midge while pursuing his own dreams, Abe embraces a new mission and Rose learns she has talents of her own. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the winner of sixteen Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy series, three Golden Globes including Best TV Series - Comedy, five Critics' Choice Awards including Best Comedy Series, two PGA Awards, a WGA Award, and a Peabody Award. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel stars Emmy and Golden Globe winner Rachel Brosnahan, Golden Globe winner and four-time Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub, two-time Emmy winner Alex Borstein, Emmy nominee Marin Hinkle, Michael Zegen, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron and Emmy winner Jane Lynch.