If there’s one thing you can count on the internet for, it’s people taking anything that they read and running with it. Here’s a bit of trivia you may have come across: Only three or four sitcoms in history have earned each of the main cast members an Emmy Award. In 2018, Business Insider reported that Will & Grace was one of just three shows that hold the rare distinction. For the record, Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, and Sean Hayes did, in fact, all win Emmys, so the part about the main cast members receiving the award isn’t in dispute.

According to an ABC press release from 2025, The Golden Girls is another sitcom that falls under this category. Once again, the awards part checks out, with Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty each taking home an Emmy at some point during the show’s run. And then there’s All in the Family, which is credited with being the first sitcom to reach this milestone. Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, and Sally Struthers received their Emmys within the first couple of years, and Rob Reiner finally got his in 1974.

One of TV’s Most Repeated Emmy Facts Might Need a Reassessment

That brings us to the rumored fourth sitcom that qualifies, which is where things also get tricky. For Schitt’s Creek, every one of the four main actors (Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Levy, and Annie Murphy) has an Emmy to their name. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Schitt’s Creek differs slightly from the other shows on this list in that it’s not a traditional shot-in-front-of-a-live-audience type of sitcom. Is that too nitpicky? Because that raises another issue.

You see, The Simpsons, if you wanna get technical, is an animated sitcom. And if you had to name the four main characters, who would they be? Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa, right? Yeah, well, all the actors who voice those characters have won Emmys over the years. Are we counting that? If not, why? And if so, the previous head count’s a little off now, isn’t it?

And come to think of it, what’s the minimum number of people that can make up the main cast of a show? The 1970s version of The Odd Couple had only two lead characters, played by Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. And guess what, they both won Emmys for their portrayals. So maybe it’s about time this oft-repeated legend gets a proper reassessment before we keep spreading unsubstantiated claims.

Until then, let’s just tell people that several so-called sitcoms have earned all of their lead actors Emmys, depending on how you look at things, but even then, we’re not entirely sure that they count and that there aren’t others we might’ve overlooked. Deal?