# Best TV show that never won a major award **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [January 11, 2023, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034 "2023-01-11T12:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/1 "2023-01-11T12:28:11Z")
Today’s _Guardian_ has an article by TV reviewer Stuart Heritage, who complains that _Better Call Saul_, “one of the best things on TV”, has been consistently snubbed by the Emmys and Golden Globes, despite being nominated a total of 52 times. > **[Better Call Saul was robbed! The snubs and shocks of the Golden Globes](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/11/better-call-saul-was-robbed-the-snubs-and-shocks-of-the-golden-globes)** > > House of the Dragon and the schlocky Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story won awards they didn’t deserve, while one of TV’s greatest shows got nothing – again Dopers, what do you consider to be the _absolute best_ scripted TV series that _never_ won a major award? (For American shows, let’s follow Heritage’s lead and say that the Emmys and Golden Globes are the relevant major awards.) To be clear, this thread isn’t for rattling off a list of any old TV shows that were popular but failed to win an award; don’t nominate a show unless you think that it, above all other shows, was most deserving of commendation. My nomination would be _ **The Wire** _: 0 Golden Globe nominations, 2 Emmy nominations, 0 wins. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/2 "2023-01-11T12:50:51Z")
Well, I think you’ve got the answer bracketed right there. At first, reading that BCS had never won an award like these, I thought, “Well, that’s obviously the answer”, but then I hit the last line, and yeah, now “The Wire” is obviously the answer. I’d have a hard time even mentioning two shows better than these, so that closes out the nominations 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/3 "2023-01-11T13:00:31Z")
Are we talking just Emmys and Golden Globes? Looking on IMDB, I see that **Community** had a handful of Emmy nominations, and only won one, for outstanding animation. (So that’s a major award, but not what I would consider a major category.) I don’t see any Golden Globe nominations. It used to piss me off that Jim Parsons won the best actor in a comedy series Emmy several years in a row when Danny Pudi was acting rings around him and got no recognition at all. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/4 "2023-01-11T13:52:29Z")
Well, using Emmys and Golden Globes was just a suggestion based on the precedent set by the _Guardian_ article I linked to. Obviously that criterion wouldn’t apply well to British shows, so for those we might instead use the rule that the show must never have won a BAFTA. For Canadian shows, maybe we stipulate that they must not have won a Gemini. If you want to suggest different criteria for American shows, I suppose we could discuss that. For instance, despite being hugely influential, the original _Star Trek_ series never won an Emmy or a Golden Globe, though it did win several Hugo Awards, which some people might consider prestigious enough. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/5 "2023-01-11T14:27:03Z")
Understood. I was just trying to head off arguments about what’s considered “major” or not. But it’s probably not something that can be pinned down. For example some people might consider “People’s Choice” to be a major award, but I wouldn’t. And of course as you say TV in different countries will have different awards. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/6 "2023-01-11T14:50:07Z")
I can’t read the title of this thread without thinking of a risqué lamp. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/7 "2023-01-11T15:56:59Z")
Must be Italian. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/8 "2023-01-11T17:48:40Z")
Well, imho, _The Wire_ is the best TV show. Period. So it is, clearly, also the best TV show that never won a major award. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/9 "2023-01-11T18:10:32Z")
The Good Place was nominated 14 times for an Emmy without a single win. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/10 "2023-01-11T18:13:22Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > _The Wire_ is the best TV show. Period. So it is, clearly, also the best TV show that never won a major award. You’re missing part of your syllogism there. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/11 "2023-01-11T18:16:59Z")
I mean, given that (a) it is the best TV show, period, and (b) it never won a major award, it is clearly the best TV show that never won a major award. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/12 "2023-01-11T18:17:31Z")
Perfect! Aristostle would have approved. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/13 "2023-01-11T18:57:37Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > The Good Place was nominated 14 times for an Emmy without a single win Like _Star Trek_, it did receive a Hugo Award. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-that-never-won-a-major-award/978034/14 "2023-01-11T21:02:18Z")
_It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_ based an entire episode around spoofing the fact that the show had never won an Emmy or other award — “The Gang Desperately Tries to Win an Award” from Season 9.