The Office's Creed Bratton Says Cast Still Has 'Bone of Contention' About Steve Carell's Emmys Loss

The cast of The Office still can't get over their fearless leader's Emmys snubs.

Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott on the sitcom for six years, was nominated six times for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series at the Emmys and never won – and it's still on the minds of his former castmates.

Creed Bratton, who played a fictionalized version of himself on the show, said that Carell's snub is the "one thing that has bothered [him] since the show" concluded.

"There were other people who were against him – there was no comparison. That’s a travesty," Bratton, 81, said of his costar's annual losses from 2006 to 2011 during an interview on Audacy’s AM 560 Sports WQAM on July 12. "So that’s still a bone of contention. I’m chewing it boys, I’m gnawing on it."

Praising his former costar, Bratton continued, "The guy is a comedic genius, one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. You can ask anybody on the show."

In 2011, after Carell, now 61, was nominated one final time for his portrayal of the Dunder Mifflin branch manager, and lost to The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons, Rainn Wilson spoke out on Twitter as he expressed his disappointment – and some anger – at the final snub.

"The world of TV should be ashamed of itself that Steve Carell never won an Emmy for Michael Gary Scott. Goodnight," Wilson, 58, wrote in the post.

Carell exited the series after seven seasons in 2011, and he said during an interview on the Office Ladies podcast last year that it had been an "incredible" run as he reflected on filming the "very emotional" send-off episode.

"It was time for other characters to step to the forefront and other storylines to be pursued," he said on the March 2023 episode. "The timing was right, I think for everybody, but simultaneously there's just a sense of joy for me that we had experienced all of this and we were getting... I was getting a chance to take a lap with everybody."

"And the way those last two episodes were structured, it felt very rich to me to simultaneously be saying goodbye as Michael and us as friends in this moment of work together. But, yeah, it was a lot, it was a very emotional thing."

Carell reprised his role one final time for the show's finale, which was a total surprise for the cast.

"The whole Steve reveal was kind of a big reveal for us, too. His appearance was huge," John Krasinski recalled on  Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's podcast in May.

“He told us very close to when it was gonna happen," Fischer, 50, said. "I think he got you, me and Rainn aside, John, and he told us a couple days before, but then we — he swore us to secrecy."

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The Office is now streaming on Peacock.