Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for season 4, episode 12, “It's the End of the World as We Know It and What Were We Talking About?”
In The ghosts of CBS’s Ghosts are a funny bunch, but that is not necessarily reflected in the show’s awards recognition. Ghosts season 1 might boast a critical rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the show’s reception has been less impressive when it comes to award shows. Although Ghosts was nominated for the Critics Choice Awards and the Saturn Awards, it has not yet received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
While Ghosts season 4’s cast of characters is more impressive than ever, only time will tell whether this translates to the sitcom faring better at 2025’s Emmy Awards. Until then, season 4, episode 12, “It's the End of the World as We Know It and What Were We Talking About?” managed to slip in a subtle dig at the priorities of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences voter base. As Flower tries to disrupt Jay and Sam’s restaurant opening for their own good, Alberta, Sass, and Pete’s conversation alludes to a major TV controversy.
Ghosts Season 4 Episode 12 Joked About The Bear’s “Comedy” Status
Sass Said Ratatouille Was Like The Bear “But A Comedy”
While the ghosts watch the kitchen workers cook, Sass and Pete commented that they wish they could control them like the rat from Ratatouille controlled his human friend. When Albertan asks Sass what Ratatouille was about, he replies that it is about the chaos of professional kitchens, adding that it is “Like that show The Bear, but it’s a comedy.” This minor line from Ghosts season 4, episode 12 was secretly a gag about The Bear controversially winning Outstanding Comedy Series in 2023 even though, as a lot of critics and writers noted, the series hardly qualifies as a comedy.
Even though the show can get very dark and dramatic, The Bear has still been consistently categorized as a comedy rather than a drama by the Emmy Awards.
The Bear might be critically acclaimed, but it is undoubtedly as much a drama (if not much more so) as a traditional comedy. The show addresses issues like suicide, drug addiction, alcoholism, economic anxiety, and poor mental health with unflinching realism. This made its win was divisive, to say the least. Despite this, The Bear was nominated again in 2024, which Ghosts notably wasn’t. Even though the show can get very dark and dramatic, The Bear has still been consistently categorized as a comedy rather than a drama by the Emmy Awards.
Ghosts & The Bear Highlight How Much Comedy Awards Have Changed
The Genre’s Recent Emmy Winners Have Overwhelmingly Come From Streaming Services
Throughout the 2000s, network sitcoms like 30 Rock, Arrested Development, and The Office dominated the Outstanding Comedy Series category. However, this trend has shifted substantially in recent years. From Hacks to Ted Lasso to Fleabag, all the recent Emmy winners have been streaming shows. Thanks to Veep’s trio of wins and a single win for Schitt’s Creek, 2014’s Modern Family win was the last time a winner came from one of the traditional big four TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox).
It Took 4 Seasons, But Ghosts Has Finally Made The Rose McIver Joke We Were All Waiting For
Only a few episodes after referencing iZombie, Ghosts season 4 slipped in a nod to Rose McIver's other famous role before the CBS sitcom started.
In recent years, only one Outstanding Comedy Series nomination slot will go to a network sitcom, usually the undeniably brilliant Abbott Elementary. However, everything else that earns a nomination is a streaming series, even though traditional network output used to dominate this award. Ghosts is a perfect example of a well-liked network sitcom that would almost certainly have received an Emmy nomination if not a win in an earlier era, which might explain this pointed barb in season 4, episode 12.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
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