TCA and Dorian Awards go all in for the Emmy frontrunners
Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 11:24AM by Nathaniel R
The Television Academy has already begun their week long awards handout. The Creative Arts Emmys will run until the 17th and the Primetime Emmys wrap things up on the 20th. With the Emmys upon us, the precursors have also come out to play. The TCA (Television Critics Association) and The Society for LGBTQ Entertainment Journalists, which hold the "Dorian Awards", have both recently announced their winners for the year and both loved on the Emmy frontrunners Watchmen and Schitt's Creek. Both organizations are stingy with acting honors, though, offering only two (in TCA's case) and four (at the Dorians), as opposed to Emmys 16 regular acting categories (barring voice and narration which would bring the number even higher). Couldn't there be a happy medium between 2-4 and 16+
The prizes are listed after the jump...
36th Annual TCA Awards
Outstanding New Program: Watchmen (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Movie Or Miniseries: Watchmen (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama: Succession (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV)
Program of the Year: Watchmen (HBO)
Individual Achievement in Drama: Regina King (Watchmen, HBO)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Pop TV)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: The Last Dance (ESPN)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: Cheer (Netflix)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: Molly of Denali (PBS Kids)
Outstanding Achievement in Sketch/Variety Shows: A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)
Lifetime Achievement Honoree: Alex Trebek
Heritage Award: Star Trek (CBS)
1st annual Dorian TV Awards*
Best Drama Killing Eve
Best Comedy Schitt's Creek
Best Limited Series Watchmen
Best LGBTQ Show Schitt's Creek
Best Performances, Actress Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek
Best Performance, Actor Hugh Jackman, Bad Education
Best Performance, Supporting Actress Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek
Best Performance, Supporting Actor Dan Levy, Schitt's Creek
Best Musical Performance Janelle Monáe & Billy Porter, Opening Number 92nd Academy Awards
Best Current Affairs Program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Best Unsung TV Show What We Do in the Shadows
Most Visually Striking Show Watchmen
Campiest Show Tiger King: Murder Mayhem and Madness
Wilde Wit Award Dan Levy
This numbering is a misnomer as GALECA has been giving out TV awards for 12 years now. It's just that now GALECA -- whose membership roster includes a few of us here at TFE -- has decided to split them away from the movies, doing a reverse Golden Globe.
Some multiple win trivias: This is Billy Porter's 3rd award from GALECA (he won this exact award before for singing "Home" on Pose as well as a Best Actor win for that show, this is Schitt's Creek 3rd win, too (it previously won both Best Comedy and Best Unsung TV Show), and Catherine O'Hara won last year for "Timeless Star" a career achievement prize you can only win once)
Reader Comments (13)
The Watchmen win for new program is a little frustrating. Since it has declared itself a mini-series, I don't think it should compete with other shows that are attempting to tell multi-season stories. This is only the second time that a mini-series has been nominated for the award and the first time a mini has won.
Happy to see A Black Lady Sketch Show and Trebek honored!
Boy am I glad that Schitt's Creek didn't have an original song this year.
Tom -- lol, right.
Joe -- i 1000% agree. Frankly i don't see why a miniseries should even be eligible in that category. One and one means you are amply rewarded in the movie/series category. It would be like giving "Best New Picture" to any one of the films competing for "Best Picture" at the Oscars, since they all came out that year. It's so silly unless New means that you are just starting... but Watchmen is already over.
I'm trying not to get too excited for Sunday's show.
With Parasite, the buzz was all over the internet and with actors - it won the SAG - but I did not predict it to win Best Picture. I should have.
I feel the buzz for Schitt's Creek is similar but Maisel won SAG so maybe it's not that strong and it won't sweep. It's gonna win some awards. Maybe writing for Levy and actress for O'Hara. I'd just love a sweep night.
To me "Outstanding New Program" has always just meant best show that came out in the year of eligibility, nothing more, nothing less, which means limited series are just as acceptable as debuting "regular" series. Because you could conceivably win this award and still get cancelled after only one season.
working stiff -- i dont really follow though in that in your scenario people dont know that it's cancelled yet or it was unfortunately cancelled and was intended to continue. With Watchmen it was long since announced that it was intended as a one and done and the show was over. Therefore it shouldn't have been eligible. New implies you're just getting started (in the context of television, that is).
It's so depressing knowing that Regina King is going to get Cate Blanchett's Emmy.
Nathaniel - that was exactly my point: the only new series you know for sure are going to last only one season are limited series. That's no reason to penalize them. "New" is "new"—and there is no inherent implication of continuing in the word imo—and "outstanding" is "outstanding." I see no reason to exclude limited series.
Unless you're saying they don't need to be awarded twice. But in that case, if you believe that limited series should not be eligible for the new program award, would you also say that new ongoing series should not be eligible for the outstanding drama and comedy awards? Mad Men, Lost, Boomtown and Arrested Development all won both awards.
i'm with working stiff on 'watchmen': was it outstanding? was it new? was it a program?
seems to tick all the boxes
I'm with par. It's mean spirited pedantry really. It ticks the boxes. New doesn't imply an obligation to be ongoing to everybody. I think i'm happy and safe in saying it's appropriate.
Just b/c "Watchmen" isn't coming back doesn't preclude it from being new! Also, Regina King is the first black woman to ever win Ind. Drama, so celebrate that! TCA should be ashamed of themselves that it took this long for that, but whatever. That's for another lengthy conversation.
Monty -- i'm confused as to what "happy" and "safe" have to do with whether a show is eligible for a prize but I do hear that a lot of people are fine with "New" meaning literally anything that was fresh that year. I'm also confused why it's "mean spirited" to like category rules. I really enjoyed Watchmen. I'm not against it winning prizes! But for me "Best Limited Series" sufficiently covers its greatness because that's exactly what it is. A Limited Series.. I guess i've always liked category rules because without categorization and eligibilty rules and such, awards have no perimeters and are thus meaningless. But I realize not everyone feels this way. It's probably why i obsess over category fraud whereas other people don't mind it, because they dont care about what an award is intended for but just care about seeing their favourites honored, however that can come to pass.
Dorian and Others -- My feeling is that if "new" is not about "promising start" than why wouldn't the regular categories Drama, Comedy, or MiniSeries sufficiently cover honoring a show? That's the point I was trying to make and the question that nobody in favor of this has really answered. I guess I never liked doubling up on prizes. There are times of course when a "new" show would deserve both a series win and a "new" prize, but it definitely wouldn't be the norm (since so many shows improve on 2nd and 3rd seasons). But many times the "new" award would be a great way to honor a show that isn't (yet) the very best on television BUT had the best start of all freshman series that year. So my very longwinded point (sorry) is that it would be more meaningful (to me at least) to have an award called "Best First Season" ;)
But I did, and you also respond to that when you say you don't like "doubling up ". :-)