Seriously? Audiences miffed as The Bear enters Emmys as a comedy

Most critics agree The Bear is worthy of award nominations, but the popular TV show's placement in the comedy category at the upcoming Emmy Awards has viewers scratching their heads.

The second season of the FX series, which follows a young chef who inherits his family's sandwich shop after the suicide of his older brother, got 23 Emmy nominations Wednesday, setting a new record for most nominations in a single year for a comedy series.

Its main actors, Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, were all included in the nominations.

The news set off a debate on social media, with many baffled or upset by the comedy tag, describing the show as dramatic and tear-jerking, even going so far as to describe certain scenes as traumatic. 

"I've been a big fan of the show since Day 1. It's one of the great shows on TV, all of the awards attention is justified," said Ray Richmond, a TV critic who has written for Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety and other publications. 

"The quibble is with the categorization of the awards, not with the quality of the show. And, I mean, it's not a comedy."

The Bear also won this year's Golden Globe Award for best television series, musical or comedy, and was nominated for 13 awards at the 2023 Emmys as a comedy, winning 10 of them.

Every year, networks and streaming services decide what categories to nominate their shows in, and the Television Academy votes to determine which of those shows will be up for awards.

TV studios and networks also run "for your consideration" advertising campaigns every year, specifically targeting members of awards voting groups, to promote their shows. Those campaigns and behind-the-scenes negotiations can also influence decisions about which shows go in which categories.

Richmond says The Bear is going to be this year's favourite for most of categories, including outstanding comedy series.

Highlighting what some see as the absurdity of its categorization, the record for most Emmy nominations for a comedy series was previously held by 30 Rock, a clear-cut sitcom that scored 22 nominations in 2009.

Richmond describes The Bear, which deals heavily with family trauma and dysfunction, as "very intense" and well acted, but not funny at all.

"The only comedy, if one could call it that, in the first two seasons of The Bear is very dark, very black, very ironic and not really comedic in any traditional sense," he said.

Richmond says the show is able to run in the comedy category because it's generally considered a half-hour show, though its episodes vary in length, and shorter shows are typically tagged as comedies.