'Welcome to Wrexham' Emmy Nominations Revealed

By Brian Jones

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny could have some Emmy Awards to their name later this year. On Wednesday, the 2023 Emmy Award nominations were announced, and the sports documentary series Welcome to Wrexham earned six nominations. The two biggest nominations the show earned as Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program and Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. For the latter, Welcome to Wrexham will be going up against, Indian Matchmaking, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, Selling Sunset, and Vanderpump Rules. 

"The story of Wrexham has resonated with millions of people because you don't have to be Welsh or a football fan to be moved by this town," Reynolds and McElhenny wrote on their social media accounts. "We are so grateful for today's 6 Emmy Nominations and are continuously honored the people of Wrexham allow us to tell their tale. Diolch! Cymru am byth!"

Welcome to Wrexham focuses on Reynolds and McElhenny becoming owners of the Welsh soccer team Wrexham A.F.C. and turning the club around. The 2021-22 season was the first season under the duo's ownership, and the club finished in second place in the National League. The first season featured 18 episodes and aired on FX. The show has been renewed for a second season. 

Reynolds and McElhenny spoke to Variety in June and talked about the challenges of documenting their club for a television show. "It was so weird. I think it's easy to sit here and look at it like it's a TED Talk, where we can say, 'This is how we did it, and this is why we're so great to have thought of this thing,'" Reynolds explained. "But the truth is we didn't know a f—ing thing when we went in there. We knew our hearts were in the right place, we knew we had an agenda that centered on them, not us. But other than that, we didn't have a clue."

"It was definitely a war of attrition with Ryan, who was very clearly uncomfortable from the very beginning," McElhenney said. "I treated that with as much respect as I could, bringing cameras to speak with everybody else. People assume that because we're used to having cameras around us that we're comfortable having them document our private lives, and nothing could be further from the truth. It puts you in a very vulnerable position, because there's nowhere to hide and all that people see is you."

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