Days after Sandra Oh made history as the first actress of Asian descent to earn an Emmy nomination for lead actress in a drama series for her role on Killing Eve, BBC America president and general manager Sarah Barnett revealed how the team behind the show celebrated the historic moment.
“When Sandra Oh was nominated, the screams were heard on the second floor [of the BBC America offices], for sure,” Barnett said Monday during an executive keynote conversation at the New York Television Festival. “We couldn’t contain our excitement.”
At the event, Barnett also reflected on Killing Eve’s “unprecedented growth.” While she is grateful that critics embraced the drama early on, Barnett partly credits the series’ incremental surge in popularity to fans’ fervent social media praise.
“Generally, what happens is that you launch at one place and you go down from that. So with Killing Eve, what actually happened during its eight-episode span is that in the 18-49 and 25-54 demo, it grew every single week,” she explained. “So I think that was all from word of mouth from the fans.” Read more