Showtime’s “Shameless” will compete in the comedy categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards, after three seasons of submitting in all drama categories.
The network hopes the category switch will help the series finally score with Emmy voters. Though Joan Cusack has been nominated three times for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, the show has never won.
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The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has granted executive producer and showrunner John Wells‘ request for the series to switch categories, Showtime said Tuesday.
“Shameless,” which stars Academy Award nominee William H. Macy and Golden Globe nominee Emmy Rossum, has always had both dramatic and comedic elements. Wells developed it for American television, basing it on a hit British series. Because that series was considered a drama, “Shameless” began submitting in the drama categories as well.
Showtime noted that several of the show’s writers, including Nancy Pimental, Alex Borstein, Cindy Caponera and Mike O’Malley, have comedic roots.
Besides Macy and Rossum, the show stars Ethan Cutkosky, Emma Greenwell, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan, Jeremy Allen White, Noel Fisher, Jake McDorman, and special guest star Cusack.
It is executive produced by Wells, Andrew Stearn, Mark Mylod and Nancy Pimental, and produced by Bonanza Productions, Inc. in association with John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television.