Daniel Levy Begs Americans To Vote For ‘Love & Acceptance’ At Emmys As ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Sweeps

After ‘Schitt’s Creek’ swept the 2020 Emmys – which made ‘Holy Schitt’ trend worldwide – the show’s star and co-creator Daniel Levy pleaded for viewers cast their vote for ‘tolerance’ at the upcoming election.

“Our show, at its core, is about the transformational effects of love and acceptance, and that is something we need more of now ever than before,” a teary-eyed Daniel Levy said after Schitt’s Creek won Best Comedy Series at the 2020 Emmy Awards on Sept. 20. It was the seventh award the beloved show won, and surprisingly, this was the only time that Daniel, 37, got political with his acceptance speeches. With his father, Eugene Levy (who also won an Emmy that night) by his side, Daniel encouraged watchers to make their voices heard at the ballot box this November. “For any of you who have not registered to vote, please do so, and go out and vote, and that’s the only way we’re going to have some love and acceptance out there.”

“I’m so sorry for making this political, but I had to,” said Daniel. He didn’t reference President Donald Trump by name, but considering the shade host Jimmy Kimmel threw earlier in the night, Daniel didn’t have to. Instead, he let his father finish accepting the award for Best Comedy before celebrating with the rest of the cast – and the rest of the Emmys.

For the first 80 minutes of the 2020 Emmys, it was – as Jimmy Kimmel put it – a Schittskrieg. The show won every award up until that Best Comedy Emmy. Eugene took home Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, with Catherine O’Hara winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy. Daniel, before winning the Best Comedy award, had taken home the Emmy for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Supporting Actor, while Annie Murphy won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The show also won the award for Directing for a Comedy Series, bringing the total up to seven.

This somewhat unexpected banality — David even apologized because he thought the Internet would hate him after Schitt’s Creek won so much — came when people were expecting the virtual Emmys to be a spontaneous extravaganza. Outside of Jimmy Kimmel and Jennifer Aniston nearly setting the set on fire, the night was pretty much one thing: Schitt’s Creek wins.

That goes against Jimmy’s hosting resume. In past hosting stints – he previously hosted the Emmys in 2012 and 2016, and was at the helm of the Oscars in 2017 and 2018 – Jimmy did his best to transform the shows into a spectacle. In 2012, he had Tracy Morgan lie down on the stage while audience members tweet, “OMG Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage at the #Emmys. Turn on ABC now.” During the 2016 Emmys, Jimmy passed out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the audience, since the show is three hours long, and the A-listers were probably craving a snack.

Jimmy said his goal of the night was to do something that would take the viewing public’s mind off the reality of 2020. “I think that a diversion is necessary, and we will be paying tribute to not just actors, but people who have been heroic throughout this pandemic and through all of the things that we’ve gone through,” he told USA Today when speaking about this year’s Emmys. “For a lot of people who are sitting at home, it will be nice to see a newly produced show on television. I mean, it would be one thing if we, like, stopped progress on the vaccine to do the show, but if we don’t really have anything to do with that, I figure it’s OK.”

“we’re gonna try to have fun with the fact that we are not in the studio. There’s really not a lot of ways to be creative doing the Emmys from home,” he added. “The problem is not for us, really. The problem is for whoever has to do the next awards show because we have the advantage of being first, and the advantage of it being a novelty. I don’t know what some of these other shows are gonna do because they can’t do exactly what we did, can they? And if they do, it’s gonna be even more boring than watching a bunch of people on Zoom already is. I’m pushing my problems on them.”