Yahoo News ‘The Bear’ Has Been Running a Smart, Confusing, and Likely Successful Emmys Campaign
When Ebon Moss-Bachrach won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor earlier this year for his performance as Cousin Richie in “The Bear” Season 1, it was seen as a bit of an upset. Keep in mind, “The Bear” premiered all the way back in June 2022, right after that year’s Emmys cutoff, so the first round of awards the show could be nominated for were in the following winter.
While it was clear from Season 1 that leads Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri would be Emmy contenders, with the former winning at the 2023 Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and SAG Awards, and the latter winning a 2023 Independent Spirit Award, Moss-Bachrach was mostly shut out (remember this is when “Ted Lasso” was still on the air, succeeding in getting every one of its sizable amount of series regulars Supporting Actor recognition.)
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Anyhow, what changed to make Moss-Bachrach go from an also-ran to a winner by the time Season 1 of the FX series was finally Emmys-eligible? If it could be summed up in one word, it would be “Forks.”
Again, “The Bear” premiered in June 2022, which would be the beginning of the eligibility window that allowed even shows that premiered nearly a year later, in May 2023, into the awards race as long as their seasons wrapped by June. To avoid there being recency bias during Emmy nominations voting in early June 2023, “The Bear” would need to do an awards campaign move that would keep the show fresh in the minds of TV Academy voters. Enter “The Bear” Season 2, which premiered on June 22, 2023, almost exactly one year after Season 1, and more importantly, right smack in the middle of Emmy nominations voting. Even more notable is that “The Bear” Season 2 released all its episodes at once.
Now, the TV Academy voters who needed any extra convincing to take Moss-Bachrach off the bubble, had the Richie spotlight episode “Fishes,” where he famously belts Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” as a reference. In other words, one could argue that Moss-Bachrach’s Season 2 performance earned him his Emmy for Season 1.
If those jumps back and forth through time are a bit confusing, that is kind of the point. Though it is not too common a practice, releasing the new season of a show as advertisement for why the previous season deserves Emmys can be a successful strategy. Other recent examples include “Ted Lasso” releasing half of its second season in time for voters to give it a watch as they decide what categories Season 1 should win. “Only Murders in the Building” also started its second season the day after the nominations voting window closed for the 2022 Emmys, where the show’s first season was in contention, and wrapped during final voting. “The Bear” is actually employing a similar strategy now, releasing Season 3 in full only two days after this year’s round of nomination voting closed.
Both “Ted Lasso” and “Only Murders in the Building” went on to win several Emmys for those respective seasons, by the way. The only aspect that has made things extra confusing for “The Bear” in particular is the 2023 Emmys having been postponed due to the WGA and SAG strikes to early 2024, placing the ceremony after some of the winter awards. So White and Edebiri, for example, had already won Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for Season 2 before they won their Emmys for Season 1.
From an awards standpoint, it really does look like this strategy has been a saving grace for “The Bear.” Obviously sweeping the most recent Emmys in January makes the show an instant frontrunner, but the Comedy Series categories are very competitive, and there has already been talk of the final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or the new season of “Hacks,” neither of which have been in competition with “The Bear” at the Emmys, eclipsing the popular dramedy when winners are announced at the September ceremony. Plus, since “The Bear” has mostly spent the first half of this year shooting its third and fourth seasons back-to-back, it did not have an official For Your Consideration event, granting its cast and crew a chance to go around and shake voters’ hands.
It’s a risk, but ultimately choosing to let the craft and performances speak for themselves this season is allowing “The Bear” to have the final word on the Comedy Series race. With White doing “The Iron Claw” and Edebiri doing projects like “Inside Out 2,” it is not like the show has kept off the public’s radar for any significant period of time, but with so many shows in the mix, a series can’t win without campaigning in some form. Now, all Season 3 to do is be good, and the Emmy wins for Season 2 are likely to follow.
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