Culture

Schitt’s Creek just made history at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards

By Sam Damshenas

21st September 2020

Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy via Schitt’s Creek’s Twitter account

Schitt’s Creek dominated the 2020 Emmy Awards.

The beloved Canadian sitcom, which came to an end with its sixth season earlier this year, won nine awards in total – breaking the record for most wins in a single season for a comedy.

All four of the show’s leads, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy won in their respective acting categories, making history yet again as the first Canadian series to sweep all four major acting awards.

Dan, who co-created Schitt’s Creek alongside his father Eugene, also won Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, which he shares with Andrew Cividino, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

“This tent’s on fire,” he said as he picked up the award for the latter.

“Writers don’t get awards, what is this?! First of all, I just want to say thank you to my dad for giving me the reigns to this show even though I didn’t have any experience in a writer’s room, even though saying that out loud right now sounds like a wild choice on your part.”

Schitt’s Creek also won the coveted award for Outstanding Comedy Series, beating stiff competition from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dead to Me, The Good Place, Insecure, The Kominsky Method, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and What We Do in the Shadows.

Dan made a political plea to viewers as he and Eugene accepted the award.

“Our show at its core is about the transformational effects of love and acceptance and that is something that we need more of now than we’ve ever needed before,” he passionately stated.

“I just wanted to say for any of you who have not registered to vote, please do so and then go out and vote because that is the only way we are going to have some love and acceptance out there.”

Eugene thanked his son for creating a series about “inclusivity, a castigation of homophobia, and a declaration of the power of love.”

The show received two more awards at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Casting and Outstanding Contemporary Costumes.

RuPaul also took home Best Competition Series for Drag Race for the third consecutive year. The star previously dedicated his record-breaking fifth consecutive trophy for Outstanding Host to Drag Race legend Chi Chi DeVayne, who sadly passed away last month.

“Thank you to the Academy for this honour, said RuPaul. “We love to make television and it’s an honour to make television. All the kids get to tell their story on our show and it’s beautiful. And a special thank you to the viewer.

“A special note to the viewer. Kiddo, I know how you feel right now, just know that you are loved and don’t give up on love. Believe in love and the power of love, okay? Thank you so much.”

The series won an additional four awards, the most it has ever won in a single year, bringing its total number of Emmy wins to 19.

Elsewhere, Queer Eye won for Outstanding Structured Reality Program and Hollywood for Outstanding Period and/or Character Hairstyling.

Zendaya became the youngest person to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Rue Bennett, a teenage drug addict, in HBO’s critically-acclaimed drama series Euphoria.

For the full list of winners at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, visit here.