‘The Bear’ Aims for Emmy After Winning WGA Awards – TV Winners

TV fans will be inundated with Emmy contenders in days. Due to changes to the Academy’s eligibility schedule, new seasons must end before May 31 if they want all episodes to be considered for this year’s ceremony — meaning weekly releases will have to start a little earlier, hybrid releases and they may appear later. larger batches and simultaneous drops may have a slight advantage. (The recent bias: it’s real.)

This also means that the field, as we see it today, is about to shift dramatically in the coming weeks. The winter awards always feature the favorites of the previous Emmy season and the hopefuls of the upcoming season, which makes them especially important for prime-time series still under consideration by members of the TV Academy. And Sunday night’s WGA Awards marked the unofficial end of the awards cycle for the 2022 calendar year, with at least one major player making an appearance.

Christopher Storer’s FX production of “The Bear,” which became a Hulu hit last summer, is gearing up for an even bigger 2023 release. The first season won Best Comedy Series at the WGA Awards, which is a key achievement in itself. Not only did past winners become Emmy favorites (including “Ted Lasso” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), but “The Bear” was the category favorite over “Abbott Elementary,” which was already doing well in among Emmy voters and continue to earn accolades this winter.

Just not as much as “The Bear”. After winning three Emmys in September 2022, “Abbott Elementary” took home SAG Ensemble and Best Comedy Series at the Critics’ Choice Awards, among several other nominations. But with Sunday’s win at the WGA Awards, “The Bear” won three separate guild awards — the WGA and PGA comedy series and best actor at the SAG Awards — and a nomination at the DGA Awards (which “Abbott” missed out on). It lost best comedy series to “Abbott” at the Critics’ Choice, but its incredibly strong showing with the guilds means more for its future at the Emmys.

All of this is debatable about the soon-to-debut “Ted Lasso” — the Apple TV+ megahit wasn’t eligible for any of the winter awards — but “The Bear’s” robust run has one more ace up its sleeve: a season 2 is expected. in the summer, and with Season 1 already eligible for this year’s Emmys, new episodes of “The Bear” could air while voting is underway — and long after “Ted Lasso” ends.

You also don’t have to worry about “Hacks” (which beat out “The Bear” for best episodic comedy, but confirmed by the manufacturers won’t be back in time for this year’s Emmys), or the WGA’s biggest winner, “Severance” (which is obviously competing as a drama, and “The Bear” is less obvious… no). Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller’s Apple TV+ series won best drama series (beating Emmy contenders “Better Call Saul,” “Yellowjackets” and “Andor”) and best new series (both “The Bear” and the “Abbott”).

No TV show has won more times as WGA voters spread the love. Paramount+ enjoyed an early boost with “Inside Amy Schumer” winning Variety Sketch Series ahead of “SNL” (its second win at the WGAs out of four nominations in five seasons) and Gaten Matarazzo-starrer “Honor Society” surprised me in TV & New. Media Motion picture. But HBO was in the lead with “The White Lotus” (limited series) and “Jerrod Carmichael’s Rothaniel” (Variety Special), along with “Hacks.” “Better Call Saul” got a little boost by taking home the Episodic Drama award (for Thomas Schnauz’s “Plan and Execution”), though the jury’s still out on whether the final season can make noise at the crowded Emmys – field.

Last but by no means least, Prime Video’s genre-bending gem “Undone” won the WGA Award for Animation (specifically Elijah Aaron and Patrick Metcalf’s wonderful episode “Recify”). Here’s hoping that’s exactly what Amazon was waiting for before picking up Season 3!

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