The nominees have been notified. 95 exclusive interviews have been published as part of our annual Nominee Interview Series. The Toronto, Boston and New York My Theatre Awards have been announced. That means it’s time for My TV.

The 7th Annual My TV Award Award Winners are below, celebrating one of the most groundbreaking seasons in the history of the medium. We tried to spread the love around a little bit, avoid repeat winners from 2012, and stay true to what really blew our socks off in 2013, regardless of any particular show’s clout or lack thereof. The result is a mixed bag of obvious winners (Orange is the New Black), love for longshots (Orphan Black, Stephen Merchant, Julie Chen?) and glaring omissions (sorry, Breaking Bad, but season 5 just wasn’t our cup of tea).

Read on, then yell at us in the comments section if you must.

Best Choreography
“The Gravel Road” by Christopher Scott (So You Think You Can Dance)
We had the hardest time chosing just one Christopher Scott routine to nominate in this category. His presence in the past couple seasons has raised the SYTYCD choreographic game immensely (especially when it comes to group routines). His winning rocking chair routine was thrilling, but consider this a win for his entire season of standout numbers.

Best Writing for a Drama or Dramedy
“Red Team III” by Aaron Sorkin (The Newsroom)
For so many years, we were able to give this award to the incredible work that happens on underrated shows like Parenthood and Shameless– shows that are impeccably written by people who aren’t very famous. But our favourite living writer Aaron Sorkin is back on TV and proving once again that he has a knack for sophomore seasons. This fantastic episode (in our opinion, The Newsroom‘s best) was the culmination of what will likely be the series-defining story arc.

Best Writing for a Comedy
“You’ve Got Sext” by Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project)
The best episodes of The Mindy Project are almost all actually written by Mindy. That makes sense; the show is so uniquely her sensibility that another writer isn’t likely to nail the sentimentality, sense of humour and point of view quite the same way (unless it’s her bff/soulmate BJ Novak, he totally gets her). “You’ve Got Sext”, written (of course) by Mindy herself, was one of the best episodes of the series so far. The A plot showcased the Mindy/Danny chemistry perfectly while the subplot masterfully sent up modern flirtation culture while doing the unthinkable in giving Morgan a decent storyline (and who else is absolutely loving the addition of Peter?).

Best Drama or Dramedy
Orphan Black
Let’s hear it for amazing Canadian television! Orphan Black is the first Canadian television show that competes fully on the level of the top American shows (we’ve had decent Lifetime-esque dramedies and CBS-like procedurals before, but Orphan Black is Emmy-worthy). Tatiana Maslany is unthinkably brilliant in the leading role(s), a solid supporting cast fills in around her (what up, Felix!), and the writing is super tight (quite the achievement when you’re dealing with high-concept sci-fi). Bravo, Canada and Temple Street Productions, we’re so very very proud of you.

Best Comedy
Orange is the New Black
Netflix is really pushy. No matter your taste profile, they sent Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development and House of Cards to the top of your recommendations until you gave in and watched every single episode. Then, and only then, would they let you move on to the standup comedy specials and 90s rom-coms that made you sign up in the first place. Orange is the New Black is the best thing ever to come out of computer-vs-human bullying. It may not have seemed like something you’d like, it may not have even won you over right away, but everyone we know who has made it all the way through the series (mostly because Netflix made them) swears this is their new favourite show. The richness of the amazing cast of characters, the intelligence of the comedy, the strength of the writing and performances from top to bottom- a massive, game-changing achievement. Force us to watch anything you want, Netflix; we trust you now.

Best Reality Series
Dancing with the Stars
Okay, just hear us out. We know that choosing Dancing with the Stars as the Best Reality Show of the year sounds ridiculous. But they had two fantastic seasons back to back. Seriously fantastic. Like, Andy Dick dancing a waltz dedicated to sobriety fantastic. Best celebrity dancer ever on the show fantastic (we’re talking season 16 winner Kellie Pickler). Two Hough-tastic seasons in a row fantastic. Season 17 featuring the strongest lineup of all time fantastic. Snooki winning us over fantastic. Corbin Bleu in gravity boots fantastic. Amber Riley step dancing in a bar and shutting down anti-fat sentiment by winning big fantastic. A new favourite Chmerkovskiy fantastic (Val was so great with both Zendaya and Elizabeth). Valerie Freaking Harper Fantastic (everything about Valerie and her decision to dance- her happiness, her determination, her love for adorable partner Tristan). It’s a seriously silly show but we loved it in 2013.

Best Variety or Talk Show/Special
Moshe Kasher: Live in Oakland
Netflix had our back this year. Just as it forced Orange is the New Black down our throats, we had very little choice when it came to watching this standup special. When we finally gave in, we watched it 4 times through then bought Moshe’s memoir. Loved it, couldn’t get enough of it. The first 15 minutes of this special from the comedian’s hometown, in particular, are pure gold. Pure Dante-quoting, Star Trek-marathoning, Irish-hating, internet-skewering gold.

Best New Series
Super Fun Night
To our utter dismay, it’s looking like this Best New Series winner may be included in the 2014 awards under Best Canceled Series. But that can’t stop us from celebrating its sweet and amusing first season run. We understand how this show got written off as quickly as it did but we so wish that hadn’t happened, because those of us who stuck by Rebel Wilson and her vague premise were rewarded with intricate, fun and relatable characters stuck in emotional places far too human to be regularly seen on TV. And musical numbers.

Best Canceled Series
Happy Endings
The television landscape is both a significantly sadder and somehow stronger place without Happy Endings. The former because Happy Endings was delightful, clever and just generally extremely well-executed. We genuinely miss it in our TV lineup (seriously, ABC? You thought Back in the Game was a better bet than this?) The only reason I say that the landscape is stronger without Happy Endings is because quite a few of its actors have found their way onto shows that have greatly benefitted from their presence. New Girl- struggling in a third season story slump- brought back Damon Wayans Jr’s Coach (last seen in the pilot) and with him a whole boatload of new story potential. Ne’er-do-well Dave is now on Parenthood as Max’s kind teacher helping Adam and Kristina start a charter school for kids with Aspergers (and romancing Julia a little bit on the side, which we’re shocked that we Joel fans were in support of). Best of all, Adam Pally has joined The Mindy Project full time and quickly become the best non-Mindy/Danny character on the show. We can tell this 8-episode arc is leading to something big with Peter and can’t wait to see what it is (we have a few guesses). We miss Happy Endings terribly, but its cast is still making TV better. Just not together.

Best Ensemble in a Drama or Dramedy
Game of Thrones
Way back when in season one- before the first massive twist of the twisty series- there was, arguably, a leading man on Game of Thrones. That has long since not been the case. The epic sprawl of this show paired with how consistently good it is performance-wise can only point to one thing- one of the strongest ensembles ever. This might be the only show in the world where you can kill off a giant gaggle of Massively Important Characters and still feel like the show (if maybe not your heart) will recover.

Best Lead Actor in a Drama or Dramedy
Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal)
The creative success of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal adaptation on NBC is a massive coup for network television (if The Following had been any good, it might have been a whole network revitalization. Alas). Proving that creativity and daring Can, in fact, have a place on an FCC-regulated platform, Hannibal isn’t just good, it was necessary. Following in the footsteps of one of the most legendary film performances of all time, Mad Mikkelsen is the lynchpin whose terrifying, brilliant performance makes Hannibal possible.

Best Lead Actress in a Drama or Dramedy
Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black)
What’s the point in us droning on and on about Tatiana? (Who also, by the way, is nominated for a My Cinema Award for her performance in the Canadian indie Picture Day). She’s incomparable. She’s mesmerizing. She’s almost inhumanly chameleonic. Not only does she play 7 (and counting) wildly different characters with great nuance- a huge feat of talent- but she commands about 95% of the screentime entirely on her own (or with herself, or multiple versions of herself)- an unfathomable feat of stamina and dedication. This is a strong category with lots of amazing actresses (we’re particularly obsessed with Emmy Rossum- look for her in next year’s awards because she was simply genius in the 2014 Shameless season) but Tatiana Maslany does the same calibre of work, literally times 7.

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama or Dramedy
Jordan Gavaris (Orphan Black)
Tatiana is Orphan Black. She plays all 3 (4? 5?) of the top-billed characters plus a gaggle of others. But she’d be nothing without Gavaris as the world’s best sidekick. Sarah’s foster brother Felix is in many ways the heart of the show (Cosima’s sweet but most of those clones are pretty darn cold). He’s also responsible for pretty much every moment of levity throughout all of season one. He’s witty, charming, compelling and at times utterly heartbreaking- someone we’re determined not to let you overlook just because he’s working with a superstar.

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama or Dramedy
Lily Rabe (American Horror Story)
American Horror Story is always full of amazing actors at full force. The craziness of the show allows the performers to go big, go crazy, generally go for it. In the series’ hugely successful second season, Lily Rabe started out as a nice, normal nun… until the possession kicked in. A terrifying tour de force.

 

Best Ensemble in a Comedy
Orange is the New Black
Netflix’s masterpiece clinched this award back in December when were narrowing down our list of nominees and almost went crazy trying to choose our favourite cast member for the Best Supporting Actress category. We generally try to include maximum one person from each show per category, but we broke the rule to nominate Natasha Lyonne (Nicky) and Uzo Aduba (Crazy Eyes). But that’s just because we needed to make room for great work from other shows. If we could have, we would have filled the entire category with the likes of Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Taryn Manning (Pennsatucky) and so many others- not to mention the excellent men who play second fiddle so well. One of the best comedic ensembles of the year. One of the best dramatic ones too. Really, one of the best ensembles we’ve ever seen.

Best Lead Actor in a Comedy
Stephen Merchant (Hello Ladies)
Man, we loved this show entirely too much for it to already be dead. Stephen Merchant has such enjoyable timing and knows how to walk the line of likability just perfectly. His chemistry with Christine Woods was dead-on and the character made perfect use of his Stephen Merchant-ness. Anchored by a splendid leading performance, Hello Ladies had heart, direction and an honest, contemporary point of view. Stuart Pritchard deserved better than cancelation.

Best Lead Actress in a Comedy
Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
It’s easy to get caught up talking about the men of Always Sunny. They created the show, they write the show, they’ve gone on to marginal fame or guest spots on The Mindy Project. But Kaitlin Olson’s work on the sneakily genius FX sitcom is So Good. Sweet Dee is this fantastically brazen, embrace-the-ugliness, self-important, self-involved, deluded nitwit of a character who also happens to be an under-appreciated comedic gem. Her chemistry with the guys is magnificent and her comic timing unmatched. This show seems to just keep getting better and Kaitlin Olson is one of the main reasons why.

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
Rick Hoffman (Suits)
We love Suits. We can never quite get away with nominating it for best writing (though we think it’s one of the wittiest shows on the air) or best actor (no matter how much we love Gabriel Macht) or even best supporting actress for Donna (blame Orange is the New Black for that one, it’s now a stacked category). But we can totally make room for Rick Hoffman. Not only is Louis one of the funniest characters on TV, but Rick will occasionally take said hilarity and punch you in the stomach with it, delivering some sort of heartbreaking moment of devastation and loneliness that you were not expecting, even though you should have been. He’s taken an infuriating comic relief character and turned him into a loveable underdog who is both admirable and pitiable, and really into ballet. Remember when he romanced Melissa McCarthy on Samantha Who? This is even better than that.

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black)
It’s hard to describe the genius of Uzo Aduba in this role. She’s hilarious and terrifying in equal measure, designed to be freely ostracized and laughed at as an absurd hardship imposed upon Taylor Schilling’s good girl convict. Then she introduces herself as “Suzanne” and the sitcom-programmed part of your brain that was wholly okay thinking of her as a scary/funny cartoon gets beaten to a bloody pulp by the empathetic side of you who recognizes her, for the first time, as a fellow human being (a fictional one, but you know what I mean). We’ve never seen a performance quite like this one.

Best Guest Actor
Hamish Linklater (The Newsroom)
Our love of Hamish Linklater knows no bounds (Note: when we say “our”, in this case, we just mean “Kelly’s”; it’s a pretty Kelly-specific thing). We first discovered him as the brilliant scene-stealing nanny/brother on The New Adventures of Old Christine (a bizarrely overlooked show considering what a knockout cast it had) and now happily spend our Thursdays juggling our niche love for him with our more typical love for James Wolk as they foil each other as the best things about The Crazy Ones. But what happens when you love someone and then they’re cast on a show written by the man literally listed on your Facebook profiled under “Religion”? Perfection, that’s what happens. Holy crap was Hamish Linklater good on The Newsroom. Jerry Dantana was a great part, but he easily could have entered scapegoat “villain” territory. Or at least he could have if played by anyone less brilliant than Hamish Linklater (playing notably against type considering he’s known for sitcom goofball sweethearts). He was the key to the season-long story arc that gave season two a necessary shape and direction, and he nailed it.

Best Guest Actress
Merritt Wever (New Girl)
New Girl‘s second season was pretty special but we also saw season one’s standout character Schmidt start to fade a little bit. Enter Elizabeth. Dispensed with far too quickly in season three, Elizabeth was this beautiful, hilarious, grounded portal into an entirely different Schmidt. A truer Schmidt. We love CeeCee but we’re Team Elizabeth all the way- she loved him back when he was just himself and we’ve never seen him happier. Merritt Wever was such a refreshing addition to the show with her utter sincerity and dry delivery- please please please bring her back!

Best Sketch Star/Talk or Variety Host
Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia)
We said no ties this year, otherwise this would have been a split decision with the other comedy duo who do an entire sketch show on their own, Key & Peele. There’s something crazy impressive about the versatility of ther performers in shows like Portlandia. Aside from his ability to play any race on earth, I never thought of Fred Armisen as an incredibly diverse SNL performer. But on Portlandia his array of hilarious characters is simply genius, topped only by Carrie’s own roster of crazy hipsters. One of the most engaging duos on TV, Fred and Carrie seem to have this perfectly symbiotic friendship that makes them so much better together than they ever were apart.

Best Variety Performance
Amy Poehler & Tina Fey (The Golden Globes)
Duh.

 

 

 

 

Best Reality Host
Julie Chen (Big Brother)
Another reality choice that you might wince at but the Chenbot was not the Chenbot for season 15. The usually bland host woke up last summer when the controversial comments coming from inside the house reached past her perfectly coiffed locks to the ears and then the brain that apparently lie within. When the racist comments made by contestant Aaryn Gries- especially those about Asian Americans- hit Julie, she came out swinging. All of a sudden the Chenbot turned into an eloquent, outspoken, strong-spined host more on par with the Probsts of the world than the, well, the Chenbots. She even threw some clever snark Aaryn’s way in the days before she was evicted and could really feel the wrath of Julie in person. Julie navigated one of the most controversial seasons of any reality TV series brilliantly and came out of it looking like an entirely different host than she was for the 14 seasons previous. Here’s hoping it’s Julie we see in season 16, not the Chenbot.

Best Reality Judge/Mentor
Adam Levine (The Voice)
The Voice has never produced a really viable music star. There are always some great contestants (see next category) but they never really amount to much after the show, so the drama is generally pretty low. So why tune in at all? There are four reasons, and they sit in four giant red chairs and drink copious amounts of coffee (or booze, if it’s Blake) while snarking back and forth and occasionally pressing a button. The coaches are everything on The Voice, especially permanent (meaning, non-rotating) pair Blake Shelton and Adam Levine. The best buddies/great rivals have personality coming out the wazoo and their chemistry is perfection but, even without Blake (who won this category last year), Adam Levine is damn awesome (even if we’re not all that into his weird falsetto singing voice). It’s almost a little annoying that he has the looks and sex appeal to win People’s Sexiest Man Alive because we would love him if he looked like Igor. We love his wit and warmth and bizarre ability to play like 10 different instruments. We love his loyalty to Team Adam and his followthrough with contestants he likes after the show. We like that he makes his artists into better artists, and has a seemingly endless well of musical knowledge. We don’t care about his face (which is a good face) or his abs (which are good abs) or his rock star status (which is impressive) we just like Adam.

Best Female Reality Star
Michelle Chamuel (The Voice)
Conversely, we weren’t all that into Usher. He was pretty good in the blinds but did a lot of weird, unhelpful stuff in the battle rounds that made us feel like he was more into showing off Usher than ushering his artists. Except for Michelle. There was something about the off-kilter wall flower with the powerful wail and the mountainous stage presence that captured Usher’s heart. And ours. By the time she was his last competitor standing, the Michelle-Usher dynamic was adorable to watch and brought out the best in the coach. She was our pick to win by far but sadly the Blake train could not be stopped.

Best Male Reality Star
John Cochran (Survivor)
We saw this coming. Watching Cochran play Survivor the first time, he was both hilarious TV (we nominated him in this category!) and a player who was approaching the game correctly, just a little too cautiously. He was too much of a fan, to desperate for every minute he could get on the island. And we said, next time he came out (because he was the most obvious returnee ever), he’d do really well. Sure enough, Cochran’s second turn on the island scored him the coveted win. He played a near-perfect game based on careful timing and excellent alliance management. It wasn’t the flashiest of games (there was sadly no throwing of idol clues into volcanoes and Malcolm made all the thrilling huge moves of the season) but Cochran played a carefully constructed strategic game while still being Cochran (aka, no matter what, good TV).

Best Reality Team
Aras & Vytas Baskauskas (Survivor)
The Blood vs. Water season of Survivor was one of the best ever. Usually it’s clever post-merge strategy that makes a season great (and Tyson certainly delivered on that front) but it was the pre-merge drama that made this season stand out from all the other great ones. Not only were the Baskauskas brothers each playing a decent strategic game pre-merge (all they did wrong was trust Tyson) but they were two of the most likeable and intriguing characters on the island PLUS the added bonus of their fascinating personal dynamic. The moment when they squared off in the gladiator challenge and Light Brother Aras allowed Dark Brother Vytas a chance to reset and start again only to get sideswiped was one of the most amazing moments of non-tribal council Survivor ever. When do we get to see them play again? More Vytas Please! (If Aras is there too, even better).

Best TV Couple
Amber & Reggie (The Neighbors)
The Neighbors is so much smarter and sweeter than anyone knows, mostly because no one watches it except for us. We love pretty much everything about this strange, self-aware family sitcom but our favourite thing is definitely the adorable pairing of alien Reggie Jackson and human Amber Weaver (played to perfection by the wry Clara Mamet). Yes, it’s an inter-species thing, but Amber and Reggie’s delicate teenage romance has hit on more human truths than most TV teenage romances combined.

The Be-My-Best-Friend Award
BJ Novak (The Mindy Project)
Normally this category is reserved for women and gay men because these awards are mostly chosen by our female staffers and the next category is where we talk about the straight men that we want to actually spend time with (as opposed to the Ridiculously-Good-Looking category, which is entirely vapid). But the first of many many reasons why we love this year’s winner in the Be-My-Best-Friend category is his Straight Male Best Friend to a Female pedigree. Here is the human hand-picked by our Hollywood spirit animal Mindy Kaling as her very best friend in the whole world. Yes, he’s adorable and hilarious and super smart (his Harvard thesis was on the film adaptations of Hamlet– what what!) but mostly we just want to be his best friend (can it be a triumvirate? We want last year’s winner Mindy in there too). We want to get in long twitter arguments with him and drag him to events when we don’t have dates and veg out watching overly long movies and eating leftovers with him without worrying whether our long-stay lipstick is staying long enough. Here’s to great Straight Male Best Friends, the king of whom is BJ Novak.

The Marry-Me Award
Aaron Tveit (Graceland)
In contrast, we would gladly put some effort into making sure our long-stay lipstick is perfect if we could listen to Aaron Tveit serenade us ’til death do us part. Everyone on the staff had a different first-choice for this category but we can all agree on the issue of Graceland‘s well-groomed wunderkind who moonlights as a Broadway rockstar and occasional French Revolutionary.

 

Ridiculously Good-Looking Male
James Wolk (The Crazy Ones)
In the Jesse Williams tradition, James Wolk could easily have made the cut for both Ridiculously Good-Looking AND Marry-Me. Don’t you love when that happens? When the guy with the sparkly eyes and the great smile and the perfect hair is also sweet, charming, a great dramatic actor, and enough of a comedic goofball to go toe to toe with Robin Williams improv-ing on a sitcom set without missing a beat. James sometimes gets pigeonholed by his looks and charm but he’s seriously awesome and we hope that everyone can see past just those things. That hypocritically said, we couldn’t put two Crazy Ones actors in the Marry-Me category so we had to stick James here to make room for Hamish. Sorry Jimmy; we love you! (and not just for that smile of yours, though it doesn’t hurt).

Ridiculously Good-Looking Female
Hannah Simone (New Girl)
Here’s another person whose sitcom character is often just defined by her looks but who is actually really funny when given a chance to show that off. We love CeeCee so much… but we’re Team Elizabeth so the only award she gets is Ridiculously Good-Looking. Sorry Hannah; we love you! (in spite of your cheekbones, which sort of make us want to hate you).

 

Moment of the Year
The Introduction of The Mother (How I Met Your Mother)
The actual ending of How I Met Your Mother was… troubled… but the end of the penultimate season was kind of brilliant. The introduction of the mother was incredibly sneaky and extremely exciting- setting the tone for the final season perfectly (especially in retrospect, considering that the mother was the saving grace of that strange season). It’s rare that a finale twist be so unexpected and so delightful, let alone so bold (I honestly thought we wouldn’t meet her until the final episode- I’m glad I was wrong). And Cristin Milioti was perfect.

Emerging Artist Award
Gabriel Basso
We tried for years to get you guys to watch The Big C. It is therefore your fault, not ours, if you still don’t know who Gabriel Basso is. By god, you should really know who Gabriel Basso is. In The Big C‘s 4-episode coda in 2013, Adam took centre stage a lot more than he had in most of the preceding series. Basso was magnificent, coming to terms with losing his mother and making one last grand gesture in the series’ patented tone of bittersweetness. He also delivered a standout turn in one of the best independent films of the year- The Kings of Summer. Mark our words- Gabriel Basso, Emerging Artist.

Performer of the Year
Dean Norris
Our one big Breaking Bad award of the year goes to… Hank? Yeah, that’s right, Hank. Why? Because we’ve never really been all that into Walt and season 5 part 2 seemingly wanted nothing to do with our beloved Jesse. But Hank, Hank was incredible. A character who- let’s face it- probably should have died in season one, Hank was perpetually ten steps behind Walt… until he wasn’t anymore. In our opinion, the single coolest thing the Breaking Bad writers did in 2013 was have Hank confront Walt in episode 1. We didn’t see that coming and man did it make an impact. From the moment he clued in until the moment of his inevitable demise, Dean Norris absolutely Killed It as Hank this year. He also added some much-needed gravitas to the misguided CBS summer serial Under the Dome (so much potential, so much silliness). One of the year’s biggest MVPs for sure.

Honorary Award
What Not to Wear
Stacy and Clinton left the airwaves in 2013 after 10 years on the air. We miss them already. Their snippy comments, their sensible rules about mixing patterns, their dedication to jackets and A-line skirts, Stacy’s cool head, Clinton’s inability to suffer fools, their adorable, bantery dynamic – they were like the fashionable friends you wish you had. Here’s hoping they’re together on a patio somewhere, sipping cocktails and judging some poor passerby’s shoes. At least, that’s where we imagine them always to be from now on.