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Excitement was high for the cast and crew of New Girl after the show was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards following its first season on air.
The two biggest nods were for lead Zooey Deschanel, nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series, and Max Greenfield, Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series. The competition among comedy television was fierce at the 64th Emmy Awards, and the last thing the two actors needed was to have the wrong episodes submitted to the Television Academy.
Deschanel recalled the blunder on her podcast Welcome to Our Show that she co-hosts with Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone. The season one episode “Control,” which the trio had rewatched for their podcast, is the same episode that could have earned Greenfield his first Emmy.
“(Max and I) each got to submit an episode that would be like the example of our finest acting on the show,” Deschanel said. “His episode got submitted for me and my episode got submitted for him.”
“Ah this is the great switcheroo of the Emmys,” said Simone.
Deschanel and Greenfield were notified of the mix-up, and told the right episodes had been resubmitted to the appropriate committees. Despite being reassured that the committee had reviewed her submitted episode and received equal consideration to the other nominees in her category, the New Girl actor was skeptical.
“I was like, ‘Forget about it,’” Deschanel said. “It’s over. Neither of us won. And we will never know if it was the episode mix-up or just us not being as good as the other person who won.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home the award that year for her role as “Vice President Selina Meye'' in Veep. Other nominees up for the 2012 Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series Emmy included Tina Fey from 30 Rock, Amy Poehler from Parks And Recreation, and Melissa McCarthy from Mike and Molly.
Eric Stonestreet who played “Cam” in Modern Family, received the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series that year. He was selected over three of his fellow cast mates, Bill Hader, and of course Max Greenfield.
Deschanel and Greenfield were not nominated for another Primetime Emmy Award during the rest of their show’s seven season run. Listen to the full conversation about the episode “Control” on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Our Show is the official New Girl rewatch podcast hosted by the former cast of the show.
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