Will ‘Abbott Elementary’ school ‘Ted Lasso’ at Emmys after key casting win?
The 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards delivered some shockaroos this weekend, particularly in the race for Best Comedy Casting. In a surprising upset, freshman series “Abbott Elementary” beat out Emmy favorites that led it in nomination tallies, including “Barry,” “Hacks,” “Only Murders In The Building” and “Ted Lasso” – the last of which got goose-egged during the technical awards show. Now all eyes are on the Best Comedy Series race to see if with just seven nominations, the ABC show can pull off an upset on the main Primetime telecast.
The casting victory was all the more stunning for the ABC mockumentary as “Ted Lasso” led all comedy series with 20 nominations — almost triple that of “Abbott.” The casting category was the only nomination the school comedy had during the evening, while “Ted” suffered 10 losses at the Creative Arts. The fact that the Apple TV Plus show could not manage a win in casting is a tad concerning given that, since the plurality voting system was put into effect in 2016 and voting was expanded to the entire television academy the year before, the winner of casting has one on to win the top prize. The feel-good sports show additionally lost other categories to “Barry,” “Only Murders” and “Hacks,” all of which left the night with multiple wins, which may not look promising.
The “Ted” shutout does raise some eyebrows as no series ever has won the top category without a win at the Creative Arts since the new and expanded voting system was put in effect. The last comedy to do it was “Modern Family” in 2014 under the ranked panel system, which was more common back then as it was the case for three of its five consecutive series wins. Last year, “Ted Lasso” in addition to winning casting, also triumphed for sound mixing and editing, the latter category where it avoided a vote-split with a second episode. While it was unclear if the show’s second season would win in any of its other categories given the strong field of nominees and the fact it was not a high technical achievement, for a show that many are predicting to win Best Comedy Series, it almost seemed a sure thing to win casting — similar to “Succession,” which pulled through on the drama side and won nothing else.
Meanwhile, “Abbott Elementary” has continued to be on an uphill trajectory since its first season and is the standalone broadcast network program at the main ceremony. It winning its only nomination at the Creative Arts is a sign that should not be ignored and bodes well for the show, which also cleaned up at the TCA Awards, winning all four categories (Program of the Year, New Program, Achievement in Comedy and Individual Achievement in Comedy for star Quinta Brunson). Many are now considering the possibility of the show winning Best Comedy Writing for the pilot by Brunson or Janelle James for Best Comedy Supporting Actress as principal Ava Coleman (James is also nominated alongside Sheryl Lee Ralph as kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard). It is also nominated for Best Comedy Supporting Actor for Tyler James Williams as substitute teacher Gregory Eddie and Best Comedy Actress for Brunson as second grade teacher Janine Teagues.
While winning casting is vital for a series win, it is not the be all end all as some may think; shows like “Stranger Things” season 1, “When They See Us” and “The Crown” season 2 all managed to win the category without it translating to a series win. In the case of the former two, their victories could be explained by the fact that there were many unknown actors in the main cast (such as the child actors) discovered that catapulted it over the Best Series frontrunner. Even though “Abbott” missed key categories like directing and editing, those are also not necessarily needed as “The Handmaid’s Tale” won Best Drama Series without an editing nomination.
It will surely be an exciting race as no matter who will come up on top, a statistic will be broken. If “Abbott Elementary” wins Best Comedy Series it would be the first to do so without a directing nomination since the new voting era began, and if “Ted Lasso” wins, it would be the first to do without any technical wins in the new voting era. We have yet to hear from the voting bodies of the writing, directing and acting branches, and it is possible that “Ted Lasso” can still do well at the Primetime broadcast, with last year’s champs Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham still in contention to repeat. But if “Abbott Elementary” does succeed in a couple of categories, it could be a huge dark horse for the big prize.
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