PGA Awards: Ted Lasso, Succession, and Mare of Easttown Win Top TV Catagories

At this year's Producers Guild Awards, Ted Lasso, Succession, and Mare of Easttown won the PGA's biggest television prizes. Ted Lasso and Mare of Easttown, respectively, swept the Comedy and Limited Series categories at the 2021 Emmys. However, Succession, which lost to The Crown at the Emmys, prevailed with the latter show not in contention for a PGA. In nonfiction and reality television, Peter Jackson's monumental The Beatles: Get Back won alongside awards darlings Last Week Tonight and RuPaul's Drag Race.

Succession won the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama, beating out The Handmaid's Tale, The Morning Show, Squid Game, and Yellowstone. Squid Game's recent win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards put them in a good position, but ultimately the Roy family of Succession came out on top. Succession features the award-winning performances of Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, and Sarah Snook as members of the Roy family, each fighting for control of their global media company Waystar RoyCo.

In comedy, Ted Lasso continued its award's domination winning the Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy. Starring Jason Sudeikis as the titular character, the show is about an American college football coach who is asked to coach an English soccer team. Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, and Brett Goldstein each won Emmy Awards for their performances in 2021. Ted Lasso beat out Cobra Kai, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hacks, and Only Murders in the Building at this year's PGAs.

Kieran Cullen as Roman Roy, Sarah Snook as Shiv Roy, and Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgansin Succession — Image via IMDB

Mare of Easttown won the David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television. While it competed against some of the shows it beat at the Emmys, such as WandaVision and The Undergroud Railroad, it also bested the well-received Dopesick and The White Lotus. Michael Keaton recently won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in Dopesick, but Mare of Easttown still prevailed after picking up multiple Emmy Awards in 2021, including acting awards for stars Kate Winslet and Evan Peters.

Peter Jackson's near eight-hour documentary The Beatles: Get Back won the Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television. This sprawling nonfiction series, broken into three episodes, features multiple hours of previously unreleased footage of the Beatles working on their 1970 album Let it Be. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won the Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television, while RuPaul's Drag Race won the Award for Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television.

This year's Producers Guild Awards reflect the dominance of streaming television and the fall of network television. Ted Lasso comes from Apple TV+, both Succession and Mare of Easttown come from HBO, and The Beatles: Get Back is on Disney Plus. Of the winners, there was no major network represented. It seems the best of television no longer exists on, well, television, but rather can be streamed at any time on any device. You can check out the Producers Guild Award Television winners below.

Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama