Showtime has successfully petitioned the Television Academy to switch its Emmy submission for the acclaimed docuseries “Couples Therapy” to outstanding structured reality program, Variety has learned exclusively.
During its two previous seasons, the series had been offered in the unstructured reality category, where it competed with shows such as National Geographic’s “Life Below Zero,” TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé” and Hulu’s “The Kardashians.” However, it failed to receive recognition during its respective years. Notably, the show did win a major prize from the Television Critics Association (TCA) Award in 2021 for outstanding achievement in reality programming.
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“Couples Therapy” follows Dr. Orna Guralnik, a world-renowned psychologist and psychoanalyst, 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 has also put the show up for consideration for outstanding cinematography (Armaan Virani), directing (Joshua Altman and Bennett Elliott) and picture editing for an unstructured reality program (Delaney Lynch, Helen Kearnes and Katrina Taylor).
The documentary original is the latest in a series of shows that have sought approval from the TV Academy to move categories. Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” convinced the TV Academy to move from hosted nonfiction to structured reality, where it will face Netflix hits such as “Love is Blind” and “Queer Eye,” in addition to Showtime’s “Couples.” Recently, Apple was denied by the TV Academy to switch its musical-comedy “Schmigadoon!” into the scripted variety race.
“Couples Therapy” is 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 as co-executive producers.
Submissions for this year’s Emmys are due on May 9, with nomination voting opening on June 15.
