‘The Bear’ Brings the Heat to the Emmys 2024 Comedy Race

The Bear is going into the Emmys 2024 already a big winner, picking up a slew of awards at the two-night Creative Arts Emmys this past weekend. Most notably, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jon Bernthal won outstanding guest actress and actor in a comedy series, respectively, for their work in the episode “Fishes,” which flashed back to a colorful Christmas family gathering.

The series, set at a Chicago eatery and following the ambitious chef who aims to make it into a fine-dining establishment, also won casting for a comedy series; cinematography for a single-camera series; picture editing for a single-camera comedy series; sound editing for a half-hour comedy or drama series; and sound mixing for a half-hour comedy or drama series.

The Bear enters the Primetime Emmys, airing September 15, as a clear front-runner in the comedy race. The show earned 23 nominations—breaking the record for the most Emmy nominations in a single year for a comedy series—and comes in as the reigning champ in the comedy-series category. At the delayed 2023 Emmys that aired in January of this year, the show also won acting awards for lead Jeremy Allen White, supporting actress Ayo Edebiri, supporting actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach, writing, and directing.

The second season of the show, which aired in June 2023, received strong reviews, especially for several of its stand-alone episodes. “Honeydew,” which saw Marcus (Lionel Boyce) head to Copenhagen to come up with new desserts for the restaurant, earned helmer Ramy Youssef a directing nomination. “This episode is a real fine line between loneliness and quiet,” Youssef told Vanity Fair. Boyce earned his first nomination this year thanks to his work in that piece. Liza Colón-Zayas is also nominated for the first time in the supporting-actress category. White and Moss-Bachrach are nominated again this time around as well.

Edebiri, too, is nominated again—but she’s in the lead-actress category this time, up against Jean Smart (Hacks), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building), Maya Rudolph (Loot), and Kristen Wiig (Palm Royale). That means she’s got a slightly tougher road ahead of her, especially since both Smart and Brunson are past winners in the lead-actress category.

There’s a possibility that The Bear could break several records on Sunday night. In 2020, Schitt’s Creek swept the comedy categories, including all four comedy-acting categories, to take home seven wins at the Primetime Emmys. A comedy show had never swept all the acting categories before, but The Bear may be on the way to repeating that impressive feat.

Schitt’s Creek also holds the record for most Emmy wins by a comedy in one year, at nine (which includes two Creative Arts Emmys). The second season of The Bear already has seven from the Creative Arts categories—so it’s safe to say the show will be eating up that record easily on Sunday.

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