Meredith Scardino, creator and showrunner of Girls5eva, is no stranger to the Emmy winner’s circle.
She got her start in comedy writing in late night and spent six years writing for The Colbert Report, where she won four Emmy trophies. She also worked as a writer-producer on the Tina Fey and Robert Carlock series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which earned 18 Emmy nominations during its four-season run.
With Girls5eva now on Netflix after being canceled by Peacock at the close of its second season, the musical comedy’s Emmy nomination for best writing feels all the more special.
“Of course this has extra meaning, for the blood, sweat and tears that you put into it,” says Scardino.
Sara Bareilles, who stars alongside Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell and Busy Philipps in the series about a ’90s girl group getting a second chance at fame, also scored a nod for best original music and lyrics for the song “The Medium Time” in season three’s “New York” episode.
Here, Scardino and fellow writer Sam Means chat about racking up Emmy nominations for the Fey-produced comedy.
To be recognized by Emmy voters from outside the bubble that is the Girls5eva writers room has to be gratifying.
MEREDITH SCARDINO It really does mean a lot to get a writing nomination. I’m impressed with our peer group. I obviously love our show to death. It’s just nice to be recognized by other people who do the same job. And I would love to see our cast be nominated in actor categories. I think everybody deserves a nomination, but it’s particularly gratifying to see Sara recognized for her song “The Medium Time.” It’s just so beautiful, and I can’t believe I know her.
SAM MEANS It’s wonderful for Sara to be nominated personally for her talent and for that song, but also to recognize the music that’s so much at the core of this show.
You clearly weren’t done with Girls5eva when Peacock canceled it after its second season.
SCARDINO We always felt like this has to keep going. You kind of feel when something is in the pocket. There’s such an alchemy of things needing to come together to really make something feel alive and special. There are just so many things that go wrong all the time. And with this show, ever since the beginning, we always have had challenges. We started in 2020, before there was a [COVID] vaccine, and were writing the show on Zoom. There’s such a resilience to this cast and our crew, and it feels like we’re always like up for a challenge. It’s like, “OK, great, we’re moving the party over to Netflix.”
Did your ties to Tina Fey and Robert Carlock give Netflix comfort to take on Girls5eva?
SCARDINO Actually, Andy Weil, who works at Netflix, was our executive on Kimmy Schmidt. Tracey Pakosta, I had pitched her when she was at NBC, and she loved the show. So they were our favorite fans of Girls5eva from the second it dropped. Because of those great relationships, when it became potentially something that could be re-homed, they were very interested immediately. It happened very quickly.
What has the platform change meant for your audience?
SCARDINO I can say our audience has increased massively. Our actors, people stop them on the street all the time. That was not really happening before, when we were on Peacock — which, by the way, was fantastic to us. I have nothing but positive things to say about Peacock for believing in the show and giving us two amazing seasons. But the Netflix audience is the world.
The success of Girls5eva, the band, is now up to the four formergirl-group characters. Talk about writing for your cast going into the third season.
SCARDINO We knew at the end of season two that they were getting in the van and going to do a DIY tour. So you want to pay that off in season three. It always felt like the natural next step. So, before the season started, I asked Sara if she wanted to get food together, and she talked about life on the road. Some of that stuff goes into the soup of the show. And if there’s something happening in someone’s life that feels relevant to these characters, it often does, too. Sometimes they say that the writers and I are having secret meetings with their therapists, because it feels like art imitating life or life imitating art a lot.
You received a six-episode order at Netflix, which meant you had to be more succinct in the writers room.
SCARDINO That was a little bit smaller than the first two seasons. So we had to adhere to our season arc just a little bit tighter. But we didn’t feel like we left anything out that we’d been dying to get in. Obviously, we could write 1,000 episodes for these ladies. But I feel like the six was a nice, tight six.
MEANS Meredith’s vision for the show is so clear and the voices of these characters are so clear. It was just a question of staying true to that.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.