2020 Emmy Awards: ‘Schitt’s Creek’ sweeps comedy, ‘Succession’ and ‘Watchmen’ score big wins

The final season of the Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek swept the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday, winning in all seven categories in the Comedy section. In other categories in broadcast television, HBO’s Watchmen and Succession scored four wins each.

CBC/Pop TV’s Schitt’s Creek, created by father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, follows the life and times of the wealthy Rose family as they settle into a low-income existence in the suburbs of Schitt’s Creek, a small town they had once bought as a joke.

Besides winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award, the sitcom won for Best Writing and Best Directing in the Comedy section. Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara won the awards for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Comedy series respectively. They play the heads of the Rose family, Johnny and Moira.

Dan Levy won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy series, while Annie Murphy won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Levy and Murphy play Johnny and Moira’s children.

“Our show at its core is about the transformational effects of love and acceptance and that is something we need more of now than we’ve ever needed before,” Dan Levy said in his acceptance speech.

The second season of HBO’s Succession won the Outstanding Drama series award, beating such nominees as Better Call Saul, The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale and Ozark. Succession follows the travails of another rich family, the Roys, who control a global media empire.

Jeremy Strong won the Lead Actor in a Drama Series award for portraying Kendall, the eldest son of the Roy family. The Succession episode Hunting won the Outstanding Director for a Drama Series award. Another episode, This Is Not For Tears, won for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

Actor-singer Zendaya was named Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the HBO series Euphoria. She plays Rue Bennett, a recovering drug addict. At 24, Zendaya is the youngest actress to win the award.

Watchmen won for Outstanding Limited Series, in addition to three awards. The miniseries looks at events in present-day America following those in Alan Moore’s classic 1980s graphic novel of the same name.

Regina King won the Outstanding Lead Actress award in the Limited Series category. She plays masked policeman Angela Abar, who is caught up in a conspiracy engineered by white supremacist groups. The episode Extraordinary Being won the Outstanding Writing award in this category.

King’s co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II won the Outstanding Supporting Actor award in the Limited Series category for playing the iconic comic book character Dr Manhattan. In the same category, Uzo Aduba won the Outstanding Supporting Actress award for her work in FX network’s historical miniseries Mrs America.

Mark Ruffalo won the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie category for playing the twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in the HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True. The series explores Dominick’s relationship with his schizophrenic twin.

Billy Crudup won the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award for Apple TV’s The Morning Show. The series goes behind the scenes of a breakfast news programme.

Julia Garner won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series award for playing Ruth Langmore in Netflix’s Ozark. The series revolves around a family that gets embroiled in money laundering.

The Outstanding Variety Talk Series award went to HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The Outstanding Competition Program award was won by VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race.

While the awards ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel live from a venue in Los Angeles, California, the nominees were connected to the event remotely through as many as 140 live feeds, Variety reported. The precautions necessitated by the novel coronavirus pandemic included award trophies being handed to the presenters in hazmat suits. Apart from Kimmel, only a handful of presenters were around, including Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman.

Among the highlights of the evening was Kimmel’s opening monologue. His speech was intercut with shots of a star-studded audience laughing and clapping, until it was revealed that Kimmel was speaking to an empty venue. The scenes were from Emmy ceremonies held in previous years.

Kimmel strove to keep the evening light and funny, occasionally commenting on the peculiarity of the situation. He started his speech with the question, “Why would you have an awards show in the middle of a pandemic?” before pointing out that it was “our old pal”, the television set that kept everyone company in their homes during the crisis.