The Television Critics Association have announced the winners of their 33rd annual awards at a ceremony hosted by Kristin Chenoweth. She sang, of course, but the surprise is that she pulled up Sterling K Brown for a duet. They sang "For Good" from Wicked! This is not a televised awards show but apparently his voice was good. That's a surprise to anyone who watched him "sing" in character on This is Us, the reveal there being that his character had no musical talent.
The TCA Awards don't do gendered acting* or supporting awards so there are only two acting winners a year. Congrats to Carrie Coon and Donald Glover for emerging as the lucky two. More winners after the jump...
Glover ends a three year streak of female winners in comedy (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Amy Schumer, and Rachel Bloom).
Program of the Year - The Handmaid's Tale
New Program - This is Us
Drama Series - The Handmaid's Tale
Comedy Series - Atlanta
Miniseries/Special - Big Little Lies
Reality Program - Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath
News and Information - OJ Made in America
Youth Programming - Speechless
Individual Achievement in Drama - Carrie Coon, The Leftovers/Fargo
Individual Achievement in Comedy - Donald Glover, Atlanta
The juiciest tidbit from the night is that Elisabeth Moss apparently walked out when Leah Remini won (Moss being a Scientologist). It will never not be weird that Moss is a member of Scientology but so brilliant at spotlighting the corrupting oppressive power and emotional damage of cults in her TV show.
the stars of This is Us
Do you like the TCA's choices this year? I just started watching This is Us (due to all the nominations everywhere). I'm only six episodes in but so pleasantly surprised. It's very much an old school family drama where they are just focusing on people living their lives and their dynamics with each other. It's very earnest 'everyone trying to be a good person' theme runs the risk of being sappy but rewards you by being hugely refreshing especially given how cynical and depressing so much of the TV landscape is. Let's hope they don't cave to the ratings demands of trying to pack in tons of soap opera ridiculous life-or-death situations in every episode in the future. That's the usual thing that ruins once-strong family dramas like, oh, Brothers & Sisters in its day or The Fosters now.
* About gender in acting categories
TCA used to do what we fear all awards bodies will do if they dump gendered categories in that they used to give their prizes mostly to men. Their acting prizes date back to 1996 and male winners far outnumber female winners in both comedy and drama. But TCA seems to be being careful not to do that anymore as there have been a lot of female winners since 2011 in both drama and comedy. Nevertheless we hope Oscar never goes this route because a) we like the Best Actor and Best Actress tradition (like King & Queen of Hollywood for a year) and b) it wouldn't be a fair fight since sexism is too ingrained and the voting body too male. Another advantage of gendered categories: the acting branch in AMPAS is one of the only branches that's fairly well balanced gender-wise which makes a lot of sense since there are the same number of them nominated each year and nominees are often invited to join.