The Television Critics Association, of which I am a long time member, has named the Crave drama Heated Rivalry and AppleTV’s Widow’s Bay as among the best shows of the past season.
Heated Rivalry, also seen stateside on HBO Max, won for Program of the Year at the 42nd annual TCA Awards. (See an acceptance video from executive producers Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady here.) If memory serves, that may be the first time a Canadian produced series was the organization’s choice in a category where cultural impact ranks along side overall excellence. Canadian critics are among the 200+ North American voting members. Not even Schitt’s Creek, which swept the Emmys in 2020, won Program of the Year (awarded that season to HBO’s Watchman).
Season Two casting for the pro-hockey romance between closeted players has already been announced. Joining returning leads Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie will be Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie. They will be playing another favourite couple from the original novels, Harris Drover and Troy Barrett. Emily Hampshire from Schitt’s Creek, Edvin Ryding, Robert Naylor and brioux.tv favourite Sabrina Jalees (all pictured below) will also be part of the second season, which just started production. Look for the new episodes in April of 2027 on Crave.
Widow’s Bay, a mix of horror and comedy starring Mathew Rhys and Stephen Root, was named Outstanding Achievement in Comedy and Outstanding New Program, with costar Kate O’Flynn picking up Individual Achievement in Comedy for her role as the town’s eccentric mayoral assistant.
Winning for the second year-in-a-row was HBO Max’s The Pitt as Outstanding Achievement in Drama. Pluribus lead Rhea Seehorn was a worthy winner for Indivdual Achievement in Drama on that AppleTV series from executive producer Vince Gilligan.
Not surprisingly, the CBS casualty The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was singled out as Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk or Sketch. Ken Burns’ worthy six part PBS documentary The American Revolution won as Outstanding Achievement in News and Information.
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In other awards, the American version of The Traitors won as Outstanding Achievement in Reality for the third year in a row. The Netflix docudrama Death by Lightning was named Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries or Specials. Children’s programming awards went to Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical. Squid Game was named Outstanding International Series, proof the TCA’s has expanded to at least one category too many. There is something to be said for being prized for restraint.
Stephen Colbert won the TCA’s Career Achievement Award. Shame that the awards are no longer live and in person, a practicality that began two years ago with the demise of the semi-annual network press tours. Members used to gather in Pasadena or Beverly Hills for ceremonies where many of the recipients would attend and make speeches. Our little trophies were considerably lighter than the gold-plated Oscars or Emmys but seemed no less covetted by many in the industry who valued appraisals from critics who were never there for the gift bags.
Finally, In Living Color took the 25th Heritage Award from critics. The hilarious Fox sketch series, which aired from 1990 to 1994, starred Keenan Ivory Wayans, and siblings Marlon, Damon, Kim, Shawn and Dwayne. It also made stars of Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier and others, including Fly Girls dancers Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez.
Check various TCA-related social media links for some video shouts from winners of these 42nd annual awards, including this one from Colbert on Bluesky..
