TV Talk Podcast: In Emmy Comedy Race Is It ‘Ted Lasso’s To Lose, ‘Hacks’ To Capture, ‘Abbott Elementary’ In First At-Bat, ‘Black-ish’ In Its Last, Or…?

Pete Hammond and Dominic Patten
·2 min read
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Comedy is the subject today for this week’s edition of Deadline’s podcast, TV Talk.

Deadline TV critic Dominic Patten and Awards Columnist and Chief Film Critic Pete Hammond take on the Emmy Awards race for Best Comedy Series, where Apple TV+’s juggernaut Ted Lasso is looking for a two-peat after taking the category in its first season last year.

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Can Reservation Dogs break into the race in its first go-round, or The Great in its second, or Grace & Frankie in its seventh and final year? And what about Curb Your Enthusiasm? Isn’t it high time for Larry David, already? We talk about all these and more in our conversation, and also hear some of Hammond’s conversation with director Barry Levinson and star Ben Foster about the harrowing HBO movie The Survivor.

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Certainly it is not uncommon to see shows repeat in the winners circle year after year. In fact, ABC’s Modern Family took the prize five years in a row, followed by multiple victories by HBO’s Veep. However, it seems that in recent seasons voters have wanted to spread the wealth with Best Comedy Series one-time winners like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fleabag and Schitt’s Creek, the latter pair winning the top prize for their first and only times in their final seasons.

Are we looking at a realistic upset against presumed front-runner Ted Lasso? If so, we speculate that HBO Max’s Hacks could be primed to do that, having already beaten Lasso for last year’s Comedy writing and directing Emmys (in addition to its Lead Comedy Actress win for Jean Smart). That might be an indicator that Hacks, a last-minute entry in the 2021 race, could be on track to really take over with its late-breaking second season that has been just as acclaimed.

We also caution to look out for a possible spoiler with Hulu’s first-season hit Only Murders in the Building starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. The mystery comedy series will strategically be debuting its second season on June 28, in front of mid-July’s Emmy nominations and perfectly situated to be seen as final voting commences, making it front of mind for voters.

Past Emmy favorites Atlanta, Barry and Maisel are returning to the game this season to further make things interesting, while the broadcast network’s biggest hopes may rest with ABC’s first-season breakout Abbott Elementary or the eighth and final season of Emmy bridesmaid Black-ish, which to date has only won a single Emmy for hairstyling but has been consistently nominated in the Comedy category.

TV Talk runs every Thursday during Emmy season.

Remember to subscribe to Deadline’s TV Talk podcast at Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

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