The cast of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has a bone to pick with the Emmys: They want an award.
Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito took the stage Monday night to present the award for Outstanding Talk Series.
“What an honor it is to be here at the 75th Emmy Awards,” Olson began.
“Wait, what?” Howerton interjected. “Seventy-five years? The show’s been on for 75 years? We’ve been on the air since 2005. I’ve never been here.”
“Have you guys been doing this every single year without us?” Day then asked.
“They do. They get dressed up. They give each other awards,” McElhenney said. “And 16 seasons we’ve never even presented before.”
Day then asked DeVito if the Emmys have ever given him an award, to which the man behind Frank Reynolds casually said, “Yeah.”
In 1981 DeVito won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Louie De Palma in ABC’s “Taxi.” The series ran for five years compared to “Always Sunny’s” 16, a detail the cast quickly pointed out.
“34 nominations and 18 wins. That’s why I got one of the 34,” DeVito said.
“Thirty-four nominations in five years versus zero nominations in 16 years? That math is bad,” Olson said.
Day then asked if maybe there were some trophies backstage the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences forgot to give “Always Sunny.”
“No, I won some last week. We got four for ‘Welcome to Wrexham,’” McElhenney said, referencing his FX docuseries with Ryan Reynolds. “I went backstage and I looked for the ‘Martin’ ones and I looked for the ‘Sunny; ones and they didn’t have nothing.”
“Right, I’m still gonna poke around,” Day concluded.
Over its 16 seasons on the air, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has been nominated for three Emmys awards, all of which were Creative Arts Emmys. The FX and later FXX series was nominated for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series or a Variety Program in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
The comedy’s lack of awards attention has long been a sore spot for the series. In 2013, the comedy released “The Gang Desperately Tries to Win an Award,” an episode that is theoretically about Paddy’s Pub trying to win a local award but is transparently about the FX series’ lack of awards attention. The Season 9 episode is full of nods to awards darlings at the time, such as “Game of Thrones,” “Modern Family” and “Louie” satirized as a dark and sex-filled back room and a rival bar that’s overly chipper and brightly lit.
The Emmy contender for Outstanding Talk Series were Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and Apple TV+’s “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” The award ultimately went to “The Daily Show.”
Noah stepped away from the series in 2022. Throughout 2023, the talk show used a rotating list of guest hosts in Noah’s absence. Comedy Central has yet to announce a full-time host for the storied show.
