Emmys 2020: Schitt's Creek sweeps comedy category with nine nods, sets records for most wins

_Schitt's Creek,_ the little Canadian show about a fish-out-of-water family, made history at Sunday’s Emmy Awards with a comedy awards sweep. The Pop TV program pulled off a feel-good Emmys sweep Sunday night, winning seven awards in the comedy bracket for lead actress (Catherine O’Hara), lead actor (Eugene Levy), supporting actress (Annie Murphy) and supporting actor (Dan Levy), as well as writing (Dan Levy), directing (Dan Levy and Andrew Cividino) and the coveted comedy series trophy. Last week, the series also won for contemporary costumes and casting for a comedy series at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

With Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy winning their #Emmys tonight, that means our little Canadian show is the first comedy OR drama to ~ever~ sweep all four acting categories, and that is absolutely wild 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/fEUnaLoDBr

— Schitt's Creek (@SchittsCreek) September 21, 2020

Schitt’s Creek broke a slew of records by becoming the first comedy to win all four main acting awards in one year, and also became the most awarded comedy in a single year, according to Gold Derby. The show’s nine total wins for its sixth and final season breaks the record of eight that Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel in 2018 and matched in 2019, reports The Hollywood Reporter. While accepting several awards Sunday via video-chat for their hit comedy series, the cast and crew of the Schitt’s Creek celebrated together — in masks — from a beautifully decorated venue in Toronto. In his acceptance speech, Dan said the sitcom was about “the transformational effects of love and acceptance, and this is something we need more now than ever before,” encouraging people to register and vote to achieve that goal. Eugene then stepped up to express his gratitude for the cast and crew, namely Dan. “I also want to thank, once again, this young man who took our fish-out-of-water story about the Rose family and transformed it into a celebration of inclusivity, a castigation of homophobia, and a declaration of the power of love.” Watch the speech here

“I’ll forever be grateful to Eugene and Daniel Levy for giving me the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age, my age, who gets to be fully her ridiculous self,” said O’Hara, handed the night’s first statuette for best comedy actress by a presenter in a hazmat suit. Murphy, bested fellow nominees The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Alex Borstein and Marin Hinkle, The Good Place’s D’Arcy Carden, Saturday Night Live‘s Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, Insecure‘s Yvonne Orji and Glow‘s Betty Gilpin. “I’m so proud to be a part of a show that stands for love, kindness and inclusivity and acceptance,” Murphy said. “Those are things that we need more than ever right now.” Schitt’s Creek – about a privileged family forced to live in a rundown motel – failed to earn a single nomination in its first four years, but it gained attention by later airing on Netflix and signed off with a heartwarming final season. (With inputs from agencies)