Corner Gas: The Definitive Award Guide

It is hardly surprising that come award time every year a quality show such as Corner Gas will be knee deep in nominations. It is even less surprising that it would romp away with lots of shiny gongs. Can you imagine the bookshelf in the Corner Gas office covered in statues. It's probably one of those flat pack jobs too, the shelves sagging in the middle under the weight. Some poor soul has to dust all those and keep them shiny. It's always housekeeping that suffer the most when someone goes and creates themselves a multi award winning show you know. 

Speaking to the cast and crew of Corner Gas I have found that awards are not at the forefront of their minds when producing the show. Quite often, as you will see in a moment, members of the cast and the writers are nominated against each other for different episodes from the same season. Brent Butt and Andrew Carr have both reported that they will glower at each other from across the table at an award ceremony that could see either one of them walk home with an award in a carrier bag. It's all in fun though, they and all the others are just happy to be nominated. 

Below is a spreadsheet showing every nomination and win that Corner Gas received over it's original six season run. Before we get into that, here is a run down of all the awards mentioned on the sheet and a bit of their history for you.

International Emmy Award

Founded in 1969, the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (IATAS) is a membership based organization of leading media and entertainment figures from over 50 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of television including internet, mobile and technology. It is part of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; however, it operates under its own board of directors with a global focus. Today, it also recognizes excellence in U.S. programming with a Non-English language U.S. primetime programming category.

The first International Emmy Awards, as we know them today, were carried out in 1973, and was organized by Ralph Baruch in a ceremony held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The event was attended by about 200 guests.

Currently, the awards are presented at the International Emmy Awards Gala. Held each year in November at the Hilton Hotel in New York City,^[the Gala attracts over 1,000 major figures in broadcast, entertainment and media from around the world.

Gemini/ Canadian Screen Awards 

The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States and the BAFTA Television Awards in the United Kingdom. First held in 1986 to replace the ACTRA Award, the ceremony celebrated Canadian television productions with awards in 87 categories, along with other special awards such as lifetime achievement awards.

In April 2012, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced that the Gemini Awards and the Genie Awards would be discontinued and replaced by a new award ceremony dedicated to all forms of Canadian media, including television, film, and digital media. The first Canadian Screen Awards were held on 4 March 2013.

The Geminis covered only English-language productions. The Academy also organizes a separate awards show French productions known as the Prix Gémeaux.

They are widely considered to be the most prestigious award for Canadian entertainers, artists, and filmmakers, often referred to as the equivalent of the Oscars and Emmy Awards in the United States, the BAFTA Awards in the United Kingdom, the AACTA Awards in Australia,the IFTA Awards in Ireland, César Awards in France and the IIFA Awards in India.

Directors Guid of Canada Awards

The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 4,800 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assistant directors, location managers, production assistants and others.

The Directors Guild of Canada hosts an annual awards ceremony recognizing achievement in directing, production design, picture and sound editing.

Canadian Comedy Awards

The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000.

The CCA have been held in different cities, most often in Toronto and London, Ontario. Between 2003 and 2015, the awards were held as part of the Canadian Comedy Awards Festival, with showcase performances by nominees and other comedic talent. The Comedy Network broadcast the first two award ceremonies and several specials of festival performances. These broadcasts have earned two Gemini Award nominations.

The awards are artist-driven with a mandate "To recognize, celebrate and promote Canadian achievements in comedy at home and abroad." They are run through a non-profit organization and volunteer committees, drawing membership from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Canadian Actors' Equity Association (CAEA), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), and the Comedy Association. Some awards are determined by industry members while others are open to public voting.

Actor, director and producer Tim Progosh founded the Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) after touring for over 20 years in sketch, improv and stand-up comedy. He felt that there was a distance between stand-up comedians and other comedic artists, and that stand-up and comedy as a whole wasn't receiving adequate national recognition. With the establishment of The Comedy Network in late 1997, Progosh felt the time was right to create a national comedy award and comedy hall of fame. 

Writers Guild of Canada

The WGC Screenwriting Awards (previously Canadian Screenwriting Awards) are administered by the Writers Guild of Canada, and are awarded to the best script for a feature film, television or radio project produced within the Guild's jurisdiction, written by a guild member in good standing, and broadcast or released in North America or screened at a Canadian film festival for the first time in the previous year. The awards have been running for over 25 years. 

Leo Awards

The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British Columbia in 1999. Awards categories are numerous, and include but are not exclusive to live action, animated, adult dramatic, children's, documentary film, documentary television, feature films, short films.

The British Columbia film and television industry provides more than 25,000 jobs and generates more than $2 billion (Canadian) in economic activity each year, making the industry an integral one to the economic and social vitality of British Columbia. The Leos were established to provide support and recognition for the work of film and television producers, writers, directors, performers and others.

In 2005, the Leo Awards Film Festival was added to the event as a means of showcasing the best in film and television production honored at the festival. However, due to limited financial resources, the festival was cancelled in 2010

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There, now we know what the awards are all about we can move on to Corner Gas and it's six year winning streak. In fact, eight years including the movie.

The series of pictures below list every single award and nomination received by Corner Gas in it's original live action run and the movie. Entries highlighted in green were won by Corner Gas. Those not highlighted are nominations only.

If you click on each image they can be enlarged for your viewing pleasure!

  

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2015/2016 - Corner Gas: The Movie

Of course Corner Gas Animated has been equally as successful, I'll rack up the scores for that show on a separate post. Also each individual member of the cast and crew have won their fair share of acclaim for projects outside of Corner Gas and I will add those details to their biography posts soon. Until then here is a few happy pictures of the gang with their precious treasures, each one well deserved!