Rob McElhenney’s ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ Quadruples ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s All-Time Emmy Nominations in Just Two Seasons

I guess soccer bars win awards.

Every It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan knows that, in a series about the worst people imaginable, the biggest asshole of all is the entire Emmy voting committee, who habitually snub the most deserving comedy series of its generation from every major awards category. Through 16 record-breaking seasons, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has only accrued three total Emmy nominations, with stunt coordinator Marc Scizak earning nods but not wins for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for A Comedy Series or A Variety Program in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

To earn that trophy that eluded the Always Sunny gang in the fantastically meta Emmy take-down episode “The Gang Desperately Tries to Win An Award,” series creator Rob McElhenny had to go overseas, buy an entire soccer team and shoot a documentary series about the process with Welcome to Wrexham. Last year, McElhenney finally won an Emmy on his first nomination in the Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, one of five Emmys awarded to Welcome to Wrexham on six nominations.

This year, Welcome to Wrexham matched its six nominations in 2024 with another six, meaning that McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ side project just lapped It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in the Emmy nominations race three times in two total seasons. Maybe Wrexham fans can all sing Charlie’s spider song at their next match to celebrate the occasion.

Now, I’m not suggesting that Welcome to Wrexham doesn’t deserve the nods its earned in the documentary categories. McElhenney and Reynolds’ passion project is an intriguing experiment that certainly makes the sport of soccer more exciting for an American audience that would generally rather watch the actual, awful Emmys ceremony for three hours than suffer through 90 minutes of the Beautiful Game. However, isn’t it a little ridiculous that the series that put McElhenney on the map is somehow less deserving of recognition by the American Television Academy than a show about a sport America doesn’t care about in a country that publicly educated Americans couldn’t place on a map?

Even the most die-hard Wrexham A.F.C. fan probably wouldn’t argue that Welcome to Wrexham is four times better than It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so why should Always Sunny’s awards collection look the same as Crystal Palace’s trophy case? If Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Frank went in on a cricket club in Australia, would they finally get their flowers, or is there simply not enough spit in the world to shower on Emmy voters?