CTV comedy ‘Children Ruin Everything’ among early Canadian Screen Award winners

By Canadian Press on June 1, 2025.

Comedian Lisa Gilroy opened the Canadian Screen Awards Sunday with several self-deprecating jokes while also taking light jabs at celebrities and calling on Canadians to toast homegrown content.

“We’re here to celebrate an industry that’s helped birth enormous global stars like Drake,” Gilroy said on stage at CBC headquarters in her opening monologue. “And commemorate stars we’ve lost in the past year, like Drake.”

In an opening skit, Will Sasso referred to Gilroy, who is from Edmonton and based in Los Angeles, as the “Canadian Nikki Glaser only less successful,” to which she retorted, “Exactly.”

Gilroy also joked that Australian actor Cate Blanchett, up for best lead performance in a comedy, was in the building as well — before the camera panned to a mannequin donning a dress in the audience.

Early winners included CTV’s “Children Ruin Everything,” which won best comedy.

The sitcom is created by Ottawa’s Kurt Smeaton and stars Meaghan Rath and Aaron Abrams as a couple trying to carve out an identity beyond parenthood.

Andrew Phung of CBC’s “Run the Burbs” won for best lead performer in a comedy series and Crave’s drag queen competition series “Canada’s Drag Race” for best reality program.

“Canada’s Drag Race” judge Brooke Lynn Hytes thanked her fellow queens while accepting the award. “Thank you for coming on TV, sharing your stories, and letting it all hang out literally and figuratively,” she said.

“Canada’s Drag Race” won five categories at an industry gala earlier in the week, including best host for Hytes, Brad Goreski and Traci Melchor.

A best sound prize for “Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. The World” handed the franchise an additional trophy.

Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language” was among the leading contenders heading into tonight’s bash. The absurdist Winnipeg-set dramedy picked up five awards at Saturday’s industry gala for cinematic arts, including best original screenplay, casting and art direction.

It was also up for the best film trophy against “The Apprentice,” “Darkest Miriam,” “Gamma Rays,” “Village Keeper” and “Who Do I Belong To.”

On the red carpet before the show, Rankin reflected on the definition of Canadian content amid political tensions with the U.S. over tariffs and sovereignty.

“We’re in this political moment where we have to reckon with what Canada means, and ideally we should be thinking also about what it will mean as we go forward and what cinema can contribute to that,” the filmmaker said.

“I think of Canada as a space that should constantly be redefined. But usually, when I identify something as being Canadian, I think it feels like a President’s Choice Hollywood movie,” Rankin quipped.

Prime Video docuseries “The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal” nabbed a leading seven wins at a Friday bash for the documentary, factual, lifestyle and reality categories.

Trophies for the docuseries on The Tragically Hip included best biography or arts documentary series and best director for Michael Downie, brother of the band’s late frontman Gord Downie.

“Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent,” which led all nominees overall with 20, was up for several after winning two awards on Saturday for best writing in a drama series and best sound in fiction.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2025.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press