Skip to main content

More trophies for Amazon and Netflix at this year’s Critics Choice Awards

streaming shows succeed critics choice television awards 2015 cord cutter wireless tv netflix hbo go
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Wins by Amazon and Netflix at the 2015 Critics’ Choice Television Awards last night provided still more evidence that streaming services are increasingly challenging TV networks. In its fifth year, the awards show had previously given only one series by a streaming service trophies—Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, which racked up four last year. This year, Amazon’s Transparent joined that list, pulling in two awards, while Orange Is the New Black added another to its collection.

With people watching more and more TV online, to the point that online video is predicted to account for 80 percent of the world’s Internet traffic by 2019, streaming services have increasingly focused on creating high-quality original content. Not only did more streaming TV shows win awards last night, together they also racked up a larger number of nominations. Transparent was nominated in four categories, and Orange Is the New Black was just behind it with three. Altogether, that made three additional nominations for streaming series in 2015 than at last year’s awards.

Two shows winning awards may not seem like much, but it’s just the beginning. Netflix’s joint project with Marvel, Daredevil, has proven to be both enormously popular and critically acclaimed, and the company plans to launch 20 new original series each year. Amazon ordered five new series this year, and Hulu recently saved The Mindy Project after Fox cancelled it, while also offering its own original series, like the stoner-meets-Ghost Whisperer comedy, Deadbeat. It’s clear that the pool of streaming shows is steadily growing and streaming services are going for both quantity and quality.

Networks are certainly aware of the fact that streaming is gaining ground. In the last month, industry giants have taken steps to stay competitive. For example, CBS made live video streaming available for $6 month in select areas, and, of course, HBO launched its standalone streaming service HBO Now. NBC even decided to release the new David Duchovny drama Aquarius online in one burst in the Netflix style to appeal to cord cutters.

The networks are smart to make their content more relative online, because streaming services aren’t showing any mercy. As streaming services proliferate further, you can expect this trend of more and more quality content online to garner even more nominations, and awards at the 2016 Critics’ Choice Television Awards, as well as bigger award shows like the Emmys, and even the Golden Globes.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
The best thrillers on Netflix right now
Willem Dafoe and Denzel Washington in Inside Man.

When it comes to thrillers on Netflix, April is apparently Denzel Washington month. Washington stars in three of our new picks for the best thrillers on Netflix, including Inside Man, Devil in a Blue Dress, and The Little Things. This is clearly a genre that plays to Washington's strengths, as he's been headlining thrillers for decades now.

The other new addition to our list this month is Body Double, a 40-year-old thriller that will hopefully be rediscovered now that it's on Netflix. If you're looking for even more thrills, then keep reading for all of the best thrillers on Netflix right now.

Read more
Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is missing the one thing that made Game of Thrones great
Ye Wenjie sits in front of a radio dish controller in 3 Body Problem.

Netflix's 3 Body Problem isn't just the streaming service's long-awaited adaptation of the acclaimed Chinese science fiction novel of the same name by Liu Cixin. It's also Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' follow-up to their HBO smash hit. In many ways, the Netflix series, which Benioff and Weiss co-created with Alexander Woo, is a worthy successor to a show like Thrones. Like that game-changing HBO drama, it's an adaptation of the kind of famously complex source material that many understandably believed to be unadaptable.

To Benioff, Weiss, and Woo's credit, they prove that's not true across 3 Body Problem's debut eight-episode season. Together, the trio and their collaborators successfully streamline the science-driven narrative of Cixin's original novel, turning it into an episodic story that is both easily digestible and propulsive. While 3 Body Problem gets a lot right, though, it's missing the one thing that made Game of Thrones such a beloved show in the first place. To put it frankly, its characters just aren't all that memorable.
A rich foundation
3 Body Problem | Official Trailer | Netflix

Read more
Everything coming to Netflix in April 2024
Two boys sit in an office in Dead Boy Detectives.

March is almost over, and while it didn't win a lot of Oscars this year, Netflix is still a winner in terms of popularity. That's primarily due to its diverse slate of hits and critically acclaimed movies and shows, which range from The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's action-comedy series, to Damsel, a fantasy movie starring Millie Bobby Brown.

Netflix plans to maintain its dominance with its April programming slate, the best yet this year. The month starts with a bang with the premiere of Ripley, a new limited series that adapts the popular novel and 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, and the debut of Scoop, a drama based on the real-life scandal involving Prince Andrew's controversial interview with the BBC. The month ends with the highly anticipated adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman comic book series Dead Boy Detectives and the second part of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon films. Check the list below for everything coming to Netflix in April 2024.

Read more