R-L: Tracee Ellis Ross, Anthony Anderson and the cast of “black-ish”; ABC/Bob D’Amico(NEW YORK) — It was an exciting day for the cast and crew of black-ish Thursday. The ABC sitcom received an Emmy nomination for outstanding comedy series, as well as nods in the leading acting categories for stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross.
Last year, black-ish was given only one nomination, for Anderson’s role. He and Ross both agree that the increased recognition this time around is special.
“It just makes it so sweet,” Ross tells ABC Radio.
“Yeah, that’s what makes this better than an individual nomination last year,” agrees Anderson, who took part in Thursday’s announcement. “Yeah, this means so much more to me than last year.”
Ross called up her famous mom, Motown legend Diana Ross, after the announcement — which is a good thing, since the singer may not have been paying attention to it.
“My mom wasn’t watching TV for the nominations,” Ross laughs. “I don’t even know that she knew [Thursday] morning. I don’t think I let her know.”
“It was fantastic,” Ross adds. “She was so excited. It was really exciting.”
black-ish is nominated in part for its episode “Hope,” which addressed police brutality and how to discuss it with kids.
Anderson says of the episode, “We pride ourselves on dealing with real issues and being authentic and telling stories as truthfully as we can, and I believe that’s what we did with this ‘Hope’ episode.
“In hope that it would spark a conversation, create dialogue that does help us heal from that,” he continues.
We’ll find out if black-ish will win when the 68th annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony airs on ABC September 18.
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