It’s that Golden Globes time of year again, and the nominations have brought a healthy combination of returning honorees and new faces. The Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series category features some stiff competition this year, but two of the five actresses who received nominations come from shows that really, really needed some attention. Gina Rodriguez of Jane the Virgin and Rachel Bloom of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend getting awards nods may be enough to stave off cancellation due to poor ratings.
Both Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend occupy the unenviable Monday night block on The CW that the network has struggled to find competitive content to fill. The CW is never exactly going to be on equal terms with ABC or NBC or CBS, but the numbers for Monday nights have been pretty abysmal, even for The CW.
Despite its critical acclaim, Jane the Virgin premiered its second season back in October to only 1.06 million, which was an 11% drop from the already relatively modest series premiere audience of 1.61 million. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend premiered on the same night with a shocking 930,000 viewers. Although Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has since found enough of a boost to reach 1.04 million viewers on average and the series did receive an order for extra episodes, ratings alone are far from good enough to guarantee renewal for a second season.
The 2016 Golden Globes nomination is the second for Gina Rodriguez. Viewers were shocked last year when she took home the trophy for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Mainstream recognition of the little CW series was great for the network as well as the series, no doubt contributing to an easy decision to renew for a second season. Of course, Jane the Virgin itself being nominated for Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy didn’t hurt. It should be interesting to see if Rodriguez can take home her second consecutive Golden Globe. Jane the Virgin was not nominated for Best TV Series (Comedy) this year, but Rodriguez representing the show is still pretty great.
Crazy Ex Girlfriend was also overlooked in the Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy category, and it has lacked the media buzz that surrounded Jane the Virgin for its unique premise, but Rachel Bloom bringing a Crazy presence to such a prominent awards show could bode well for the future of her series, as well.
Both shows have reached a certain degree of critical acclaim as they represented departures from traditional CW fare. The CW has been consistently coasting off of the numbers for superhero and supernatural series, and keeping the critically-liked Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex Girlfriend despite low ratings could be a smart move from the network.
The other nominees for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy are Jamie Lee Curtis of Scream Queens, Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep, and Lily Tomlin of Grace & Frankie; you can check out the full list of TV nominations, here. The Golden Globes will air on Sunday, January 10.
