FreemantleMedia Enterprises' IT Crowd Nominated for International Emmy

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has extended its congratulations to the team behind The IT Crowd on their nomination at the prestigious 34th International Emmy Awards, to be held in New York.
The IT Crowd - vying for the coveted Best Comedy International Emmy against Little Britain (BBC, UK); Paare (Sony Pictures Film and Fernseh Producktions GmbH, Germany) and The Amateurs (Globo TV, Brazil) - represents another of FremantleMedia’s hot British exports taking the world stage.
Just last week, news broke that FremantleMedia North America will co-produce a pilot US version of The IT Crowd with NBC Universal Television Studio; The IT Crowd star, Katherine Parkinson, has also picked up two nominations at The British Comedy Awards, for Best TV Comedy Actress and Best Female Comedy Newcomer, with winners to be announced at the ceremony on December 13.
FME acquired TV distribution rights for The IT Crowd in February as part of its comedy initiative to attract the best creative and comedy talent. The first series of this talkbackTHAMES sitcom has seen worldwide success, with sales of The IT Crowd (6 x 30’) in 10 key territories including Australia and Japan, with additional deals in the pipeline.
Screened in the UK on Channel 4, The IT Crowd became the channel's highest rated new UK sitcom launch this year and also ranked number one in its timeslot for young adults. Having been re-commissioned for a second series in the UK, fans of The IT Crowd will be able to enjoy six new half-hour episodes on Channel 4 next year.
David Ellender, CEO, FremantleMedia Enterprises, said: “On behalf of all at FME, I warmly congratulate The IT Crowd on the achievement of their first International Emmy nomination - in addition to the great news of the NBC pilot and British Comedy Award nominations - and we wish them the best of luck. It is no mean feat for a programme to be making such international in-roads, and is testament to writer Graham Linehan, producer Ash Atalla and the rest of The IT Crowd team. Credit is also due to Shane Murphy, Head of Acquisitions and Development, and his team who continue seek out the freshest and most exciting comedy talent. I’m confident more international best comedy nominations are on their way.”
The popular sitcom comes from former talkbackTHAMES producer, Ash Atalla, producer of The Office, and is written and directed by Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books).
The IT Crowd is about an IT department - Roy (Chris O’Dowd), Jen (Katherine Parkinson) and Moss (Richard Ayoade) – who work in the basement of Reynholm Industries while, their beautiful colleagues work upstairs in fantastic surroundings.
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, The IT Crowd is a surreal look at the underclass of a company.
talkbackTHAMES is the UK production company owned by FremantleMedia.
(SP)