Showtime successfully petitioned the Television Academy to upgrade its Emmy submission for the acclaimed docuseries “Couples Therapy” to Outstanding Structured Reality Program, Variety learned exclusively.
In its previous two seasons, the series was offered in the unstructured reality category, where it competed against shows such as National Geographic’s “Life Below Zero,” TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé,” and “The Kardashians.” from Hulu. However, he went unrecognized in his respective years. Notably, the show won a major award from the Television Critics Association (TCA) award in 2021 for Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming.
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“Couples Therapy” follows world-renowned psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik as she guides couples through real-life therapy sessions. This second installment of the third season follows four couples, with all nine episodes premiering on the Showtime app on April 28.
In addition to the Outstanding Reality Program category, the cable network also gave the show consideration for Outstanding Cinematography (Armaan Virani), Direction (Joshua Altman and Bennett Elliott), and Picture Editing for a Reality Program unstructured (Delaney Lynch, Helen Kearnes and Katrina Taylor).
The original documentary is the latest in a series of shows that have sought approval from the TV Academy to switch categories. Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” convinced the TV Academy to move from hosted non-fiction to structured reality, where it will take on Netflix hits such as “Love is Blind” and “Queer Eye,” in addition to Showtime’s “Couples.” ” Recently, Apple was refused by the TV Academy to change its musical “Schmigadoon!” in the race for scripted varieties.
“Couples Therapy” is executive produced by Matt Parker and Bennett Elliott, with Eli Despres, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg and Vinnie Malhotra serving as executive producers and Kim Roberts and Maya Seidler serving as co-executive producers.
Submissions for this year’s Emmys are due May 9, with the nomination vote opening June 15.