If anyone was sleeping on The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend before the Golden Globes, Rachel Bloom's win for Best Actress in a Television Comedy or Musical just woke them up.
The low-rated series has struggled in The CW's Monday-night comedy block with Jane the Virgin, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is nonetheless a critical hit thanks to its inventive songs, cheeky humor, and Bloom's stellar anchor performance as neurotic lawyer Rebecca Bunch.
Bloom was visibly stunned and thrilled to win the Golden Globe — not least because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend almost didn't make it to air for the 2015-'16 TV season.
After letting out a few breathless exclamations of disbelief, Bloom let everyone in on the arduous process of getting Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to air:
We almost didn't have a show! We made a pilot for another network and they rejected it and we sent the pilot to every other network in Hollywood and ... we got six rejections in one day. We felt like crap. But we knew it was good.
Indeed, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was originally ordered by Showtime, which then passed on the series after seeing the pilot. Enter The CW, swooping in to pick up the pieces. (Showtime and The CW are sister networks under CBS and the WB, so at least it stayed in the family.)
And so the network made over Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from a half-hour Showtime comedy into an hour-long musical dramedy. CW president Mark Pedowitz recently expressed his belief in the show, but will undoubtedly be relieved by this high-profile win, which should help it draw more viewers. (It's also The CW's second consecutive Best Actress in a Comedy win, since Gina Rodriguez won in 2015 for Jane the Virgin.)
If you're unfamiliar with the work that landed Bloom the Globe, here is but a small sample:
