CBC’s SCHITT’S CREEK made Canadians proud at the 72nd Emmy® Awards, winning a total of nine awards including a historic win for Outstanding Comedy Series, marking the first time a Canadian television program has won an Emmy in the Outstanding Comedy or Drama Series category, and the most primetime Emmy awards ever for a Canadian series.
The series also made history by sweeping all Emmy comedy categories with the most wins in a single season for a comedy including Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series for Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy; Outstanding Supporting Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series for Annie Murphy and Daniel Levy; Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for Andrew Cividino and Daniel Levy; and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Daniel Levy. The beloved CBC and Pop TV comedy is also the most Emmy-nominated series in Canadian television history, with 15 nominations in 2020 and four in 2019, for a total of 19.
“Congratulations to the entire Schitt’s Creek team on this remarkable achievement,“ said Sally Catto, General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports, CBC. “We are so honoured to have worked with this infinitely talented team and proud to have commissioned this groundbreaking comedy that celebrates family and inclusive values with brilliance and unparalleled humour. Schitt’s Creek became an anchor for a new era of scripted comedy at CBC and is truly one of the greatest comedies ever created. It is beloved around the globe and CBC is delighted to be a partner in bringing the best of Canada to the world.”
In April 2020, SCHITT’S CREEK ended its six-season run on CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, as Canada’s most-watched homegrown comedy. The Canadian series was commissioned and ordered straight to series by CBC in May 2013, with Pop TV coming on board as the show’s U.S. broadcast partner and co-commissioner in 2014. The series first started production in Ontario in spring 2014 and premiered on CBC on January 15, 2015.
Since its debut, SCHITT’S CREEK has garnered more than 170 award nominations and appeared on dozens of ‘Best Of’ lists. The series is consistently recognized for promoting acceptance of the LGBTQ2+ community, most recently collecting a 2020 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and sweeping the Dorian Awards’ first-ever TV awards with Best TV Comedy, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress. The comedy also won big at the 2020 Television Critics Association annual awards taking Outstanding Achievement In Comedy and Individual Achievement In Comedy for Catherine O’Hara and picked up six 2020 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Comedy Series.
As Canada’s national public broadcaster, CBC has a long-standing commitment to develop and nurture world-class Canadian comedy creators and bring them to audiences in Canada and the world, including a rich legacy of sketch comedy (Read: A Brief History of Canadian Sketch Comedy on TV). Other groundbreaking CBC comedy series over the years include Wayne and Shuster; The Royal Canadian Air Farce; The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour starring SNL’s Lorne Michaels; SCTV starring John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, and Martin Short; The Kids in the Hall starring Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson; and recent acclaimed series Baroness von Sketch Show, Kim’s Convenience, The Rick Mercer Report, TallBoyz, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Workin’ Moms. Other CBC series that have received primetime Emmy recognition include the iconic SCTV, which received 15 nominations from 1982 to 1983 and two consecutive wins for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program; influential sketch comedy The Kids In the Hall, which received three consecutive nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program from 1993 to 1995; and historical drama The Tudors, which received 15 nominations and six wins from 2007 to 2010 in multiple craft categories.
CBC also played an important role in the early careers of many Canadian comedy legends including Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, and Catherine O’Hara, who starred in CBC children’s series Coming Up Rosie from 1975 – 78; Mike Myers, who first debuted his Wayne’s World character Wayne Campbell to TV audiences in 1987 on a CBC series called It’s Only Rock & Roll; and Jim Carrey, who showed off his early comedic and dramatic chops in the 1981 CBC movie Introducing Janet.
The complete list of Schitt’s Creek 2020 Emmy Awards is as follows:
- Outstanding Comedy Series
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Catherine O’Hara
- Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Eugene Levy
- Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, Andrew Cividino, Daniel Levy
- Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, Daniel Levy
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, Annie Murphy
- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, Daniel Levy
- Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, Jon Comerford, and Lisa Parasyn
- Outstanding Contemporary Costumes, Debra Hanson and Darci Cheyne
Commissioned by CBC, SCHITT’S CREEK is produced by Not A Real Company Productions Inc. and created by Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy. The executive producers are Daniel Levy, Eugene Levy, Andrew Barnsley, Fred Levy, David West Read, and Ben Feigin. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports; Trish Williams is Executive Director, Scripted Content; and Greig Dymond is Executive in Charge of Production. SCHITT’S CREEK is produced in association with CBC and Pop TV and distributed internationally by ITV Studios.