‘Heartstopper,’ ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Yellowjackets’ Win Top Honors at LGBTQ Critics Awards

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced the winners of its 14th Dorian TV Awards earlier today. The awards are given to both “mainstream and LGBTQIA+ programs.”

Unsurprisingly, Netflix’s wonderful, heartwarming British gay teen romance series Heartstopper took home the honor for Best LGBTQ TV Show, while the award for best overall comedy went to ABC’s Abbott Elementary, a warmly funny sitcom about an underfunded Philadelphia public grade school.

The award for best drama series went to Showtime’s Yellowjackets, which trounced serious power-hitters like HBO’s Succession and AMC’s Better Call Saul. Best TV Movie or Miniseries went to HBO’s The White Lotus, Mike White’s trippy, anxiety-soaked resort-set dramatic satire.

Jennifer Coolidge picked up an acting honor for her memorable supporting work in White Lotus, while Melanie Lynskey took the award for Best TV Performance — a powerfully competitive field whose nominees included Jean Smart of Hacks, Bill Hader of Barry, and Bridget Everett of Somebody Somewhere — for her role in Yellowjackets.

Fox’s Bob’s Burgers nabbed the award for Best Animated Show, best reality series went to — naturally — RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Best Unsung TV Show went, fittingly, to HBO Max’s enormously funny The Other Two, which features at its core a gay man exploding into his sexuality.

Coolidge picked up a second honor — The Wilde Wit Award — presented “to a performer, writer or commentator whose observations both challenge and amuse.” She beat out fellow nominees Joel Kim Booster, Quinta Brunson, Jerrod Carmichael, and Bowen Yang.

The group’s inaugural Icon Award wound up going to two performers: Christine Baranski, for her work on The Good Wife, The Gilded Age, and the unsurpassed The Good Fight, and Cassandra Peterson, better known to pop culture as Elvira.

Finally, Jerrod Carmichael was awarded GALECA’s TV Trailblazer Award, given “for creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity,” besting fellow, but no less worthy nominees Margaret Cho, Russell T Davies, Kate McKinnon, and Bowen Yang.

Formed in 2009, GALECA, a volunteer organization, is comprised of 360 film, TV, and pop culture critics and journalists from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and U.K.  Metro Weekly is represented on the membership by two critics, André Hereford and Randy Shulman.

The Dorian Awards are presented for both television and film. The next round of film nominees will be revealed in January 2023.

A complete list of the 14th Dorian TV Award winners follows, along with the full list of nominees, with the winners’ names in bold.

BEST TV DRAMA
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Heartstopper (Netflix)
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Severance (Apple TV+)
Succession (HBO)

BEST TV COMEDY
Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Barry (HBO)
Hacks (HBO Max)
The Other Two (HBO Max)
Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)

BEST LGBTQ TV SHOW
Hacks (HBO Max)
Heartstopper (Netflix)
The Other Two (HBO Max)
Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)
Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1)

BEST TV MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Dopesick (Hulu)
The Dropout (Hulu)
Midnight Mass (Netflix)
Station Eleven (HBO Max)
The White Lotus (HBO)

BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE TV SHOW
Elite (Netflix)
Lupin (Netflix)
My Brilliant Friend (HBO)
Pachinko (Apple TV+)
Squid Game (Netflix)

BEST UNSUNG TV SHOW
– to an exceptional program worthy of greater attention
Better Things (FX)
The Other Two (HBO Max)
Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)
Russian Doll (Netflix)
Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)

BEST TV PERFORMANCE
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Kit Connor, Heartstopper (Netflix)
Bridget Everett, Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Bill Hader, Barry (HBO)
Lily James, Pam & Tommy (Hulu)
Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll (Netflix)
Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Amanda Seyfried, The Dropout (HBO)
Jean Smart, Hacks (HBO Max)
Zendaya, Euphoria (HBO)

BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE
Murray Bartlett, The White Lotus (HBO)
Anthony Carrigan, Barry (HBO)
Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus (HBO)
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks (HBO Max)
Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Matthew Macfadyen Succession (HBO)
Christina Ricci, Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul (AMC)
Sydney Sweeney, Euphoria (HBO)

BEST TV MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Beyoncé, “Be Alive,” 94th Academy Awards (ABC)
Kristin Chenoweth and cast, “Tribulation,” Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller, “Don’t Give Up,” Somebody Somewhere(HBO)
Jean Smart, “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman,” Hacks (HBO Max)
Cecily Strong and cast, “Corn Puddin’,” Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
Hannah Waddingham and cast, “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)

BEST TV DOCUMENTARY OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
The Andy Warhol Diaries (Netflix)
The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
How To with John Wilson (HBO)
Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known (HBO)
We Need to Talk About Cosby (Showtime)

BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS PROGRAM
The Amber Ruffin Show (Peacock)
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)
The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
ZIWE (Showtime)

BEST ANIMATED SHOW
Arcane (Netflix)
Big Mouth (Netflix)
Bob’s Burgers (Fox)
Q Force (Netflix)
Tuca & Bertie (Adult Swim)
What If … ? (Disney+)

BEST REALITY SHOW
Legendary (HBO Max)
The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans (Paramount+)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1)
Survivor (CBS)
Top Chef: Houston (Bravo)
We’re Here (HBO)

MOST VISUALLY STRIKING TV SHOW
Euphoria (HBO)
The Gilded Age (HBO)
Loki (Disney+)
Severance (Apple TV+)
Squid Game (Netflix)

CAMPIEST TV SHOW
Diana: The Musical (Netflix)
Euphoria (HBO)
Girls5Eva (Peacock)
Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)
Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)

WILDE WIT AWARD
– To a performer, writer or commentator whose observations both challenge and amuse
Joel Kim Booster
Quinta Brunson
Jerrod Carmichael
Jennifer Coolidge
Bowen Yang

GALECA TV ICON AWARD (TIE)
Note: This in an inaugural honor and its name has been truncated from the one previously announced
Gillian Anderson
Christine Baranski
Lynda Carter
Kim Cattrall
Cassandra Peterson

GALECA LGBTQIA+ TV TRAILBLAZER
– For creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity
Jerrod Carmichael
Margaret Cho
Russell T Davies
Kate McKinnon
Bowen Yang

Follow GALECA on Twitter at @dorianawards.