TCA Awards: People v. O.J. Simpson, black-ish, Mr. Robot, Rachel Bloom, Samantha Bee Among Big Winners
The verdict is in: The critics love People v. O.J. Simpson.
The inaugural edition of FX’s American Crime Story franchise scored a leading three trophies at Saturday’s 2015 Television Critics Association Awards in Beverly Hills, including Program of the Year, Outstanding Movie/Miniseries and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Drama for Sarah Paulson.
ABC’s black-ish and FX’s The Americans took home top comedy and drama series honors (the latter repeating its 2015 victory), while Mr. Robot was named Outstanding New Program.
Other noteworthy winners 
at the non-televised ceremony, hosted by Jane the Virgin‘s Jaime Camil (mostly in character as Rogelio), include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Rachel Bloom (Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy), TBS’ Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (Outstanding Achievement in News and Information) and Netflix’s Making a Murderer (Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming).
The complete winners list is below.
PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
The Americans, FX
Fargo, FX
Game of Thrones, HBO
Making a Murderer, Netflix
Mr. Robot, USA
WINNER The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, FX
UnREAL, Lifetime
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
WINNER The Americans, FX
Better Call Saul, AMC
Game of Thrones, HBO
The Leftovers, HBO
Mr. Robot, USA
UnREAL, Lifetime
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
WINNER black-ish, ABC
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The CW
Master of None, Netflix
Silicon Valley, HBO
Veep, HBO
You’re The Worst, FXX
OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The CW
Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Netflix
Master of None, Netflix
WINNER Mr. Robot, USA
Underground, WGN America
UnREAL, Lifetime
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES AND SPECIALS
All The Way, HBO
Fargo, FX
The Night Manager, AMC
WINNER The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, FX
Roots, History
Show Me A Hero, HBO
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
Bryan Cranston, All The Way
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
WINNER Sarah Paulson, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Keri Russell, The Americans
Courtney B. Vance, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Samantha Bee, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
WINNER Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Aya Cash, You’re The Worst
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Constance Wu, Fresh Off the Boat
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS AND INFORMATION
CBS Sunday Morning, CBS
WINNER Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS
Jackie Robinson, PBS
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, HBO (2015 winner)
Real Time With Bill Maher, HBO
United Shades of America, CNN
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN REALITY PROGRAMMING
I Am Cait, E!
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, Showtime
The Great British Baking Show, PBS
WINNER Making a Murderer, Netflix
MasterChef Junior, Fox
Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance, CBS
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH PROGRAMMING
WINNER Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, PBS
Doc McStuffins, Disney Junior
Nature Cat, PBS
Odd Squad, PBS
Sofia The First, Disney Junior
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Lily Tomlin (presented by surprise guest Jane Fonda)
HERITAGE AWARD
The Larry Sanders Show, HBO
WINNER The Mary Tyler Moore Show, CBS
Seinfeld, NBC
Star Trek, NBC
Twin Peaks, ABC
GoT lost to The Americans?
As well it should. Don’t get me wrong, I never miss an episode of GoT… but The Americans is magnificent.
Agreed. I would also put Mr. Robot and Better Call Saul above Game of Thrones, even at its best.
Black-ish! Rachel Bloom! Sarah Paulson! <3
In “OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY”, the winner was easily the weakest link, black-ish It’s not a bad show at all, but look at the competition. That show won because of ONE landmark episode — the one about police brutality. Meanwhile, all others presented a lot more consistency the whole season long. Those who saw all of Crazy Ex-Gf and Master Of None can easily attest to that.
I don’t think I laughed at one episode of Master of None…
I did at a few moments, but I don’t say all that considering the amount of laughter. It’s about consistence in terms of being a smart show, something that black-ish just doesn’t have. Moments, yes, jokes, yes, but never consistency.
BTW, did you actually laugh at the police brutality episode? It was smart (it was!), but… funny? Where?
VERY happy for Rachel Bloom! I absolutely adore CEG. Would’ve liked UnReal to win something, but thank you TV critics for at least recognizing it with so many nominations.
Congrats Sarah, now let’s win those Emmys
I still can’t get over how universally positive critics seem to be for American Crime Story. It’s basically American Horror Story without the shock value, slightly less blood and somehow more over the top acting. I mean, everyone saw what Travolta was doing, right? Right? I mean, people really died and they turned it into a bad telenovella acting reel.
Perhaps American Crime Story has been overpraised and got a few nominations at the Emmys it did not deserve, but it was really good. Yes, Travolta was OTT, but he was playing Robert Shapiro. Cuba Gooding was pretty bad as OJ and he seemingly got nominated for the Emmy on name recognition. The rest of the cast however was good to great, with the standouts being Paulson, Vance and Sterling K Brown.
I fully agree Travolta and Gooding were just bad as hell. I’ll add to that that David Schwimmer had only two contrived facial expressions for the whole season and people still praise his “acting” for reasons I’ll never understand. Sarah Paulson, tho, was magnificent, and Vance and Brown were not far from that.
I love Sarah Paulson, but I felt this material was beneath her. Schwimmer, while not showing a range of emotions, the role didn’t call for that. I thought he was good for being low key (compared to everyone else) and it seemed authentic as someone who lost faith in their friend. So I gotta praise him for basically being the only one on the show to not be involved in a shouting match.
A good list of winners. I’m not a Blackish watcher so I’d like to have seen Crazy Ex Girlfriend win, but Rachel Bloom beating out the always fantastic Julia Louis Dreyfus was nice as JLD will undoubtedly win the Emmy. Sarah Paulson and People vs OJ were great picks. That show could have been a train wreck but ended up being constantly entertaining and thought provoking, The documentary about OJ (which I think is eligible at the Oscars) gave it context while Ryan Murphy’s show had the human stories
Aside from Sarah Paulson’s brilliant performance (though still not quite as deserving as Keri Russell or Kirsten Dunst), there was nothing extraordinary about People vs OJ. In no way is it more of an achievement than Fargo or The Americans. And blackish over Veep? Please.
Veep superfans love telling everyone else that it’s funnier than all other shows, but I laugh way harder at black-ish than I do at Veep. Just saying.
All these small-ish awards exist to appease the fans of the snubbed shows or shows that will never win an Emmy….I can see The People v OJ winning over GOT but The Americans that’s lol funny.
John Oliver is only getting much better with time, unless if they cannot award a recipient two years in a row, there’s no way Samantha Bee is better than John Oliver.