Abbott Elementary may still be a few days away from returning for more of Season 5 in the 2026 TV schedule, but actress Janelle James already has something to celebrate this year: a long-awaited Critics Choice Awards win. After being nominated three years in a row without taking home a trophy, James won in the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her fourth nomination. She brought some laughs with her acceptance speech after getting the big news, and her picks for other sitcoms to feature her character sound even more entertaining.
Janelle James’ victory as Best Supporting Actress gave Abbott Elementary its first CCA trophy since the show won for Best Comedy Series and Sheryl Lee Ralph won for Best Supporting Actress, both in 2023. While Abbott didn’t win Best Comedy and co-star Chris Perfetti didn’t take home the trophy for Best Supporting Actor this year, James’ success was a long time coming after four consecutive nominations. In her acceptance speech, she said:
The best thing about being nominated four times is I finally realized they’re never gonna feed us at this thing. It’s gonna be just grapes and ice cream every year, but this makes up for it! And also, four times means we’ve been on the air five seasons, and I can sincerely say that I love everybody I work with. I’ve grown to know them and love them and everybody’s so kind. And shout out to me for remaining kind when it seems like I don’t have to be and I’d probably make a lot more money, but I do it anyway.
Janelle James may not have gotten a five-course meal during the course of the Critics Choice Awards, but apparently winning Best Supporting Actress “makes up for it” after four successive nominations! It’s also fitting that she won for this year’s round of CCAs, as 2025 was a big year for Ava that, for some, made her even more of an Abbott Elementary fan favorite.
In the back half of the fourth season (available streaming now with a Hulu subscription), Ava was fired from her job as the Abbott principal, to the dismay of fans everywhere. Fortunately, that wasn’t because Janelle James was leaving the show, and it was just a matter of time until Ava was back where she belonged at the school. The back half of Season 5 will pick up after the crazy plot twist of the school moving to an abandoned mall, but I’m still thinking about the Critics Choice Award-winner’s ideas for other shows that Ava could appear on.
When I spoke with Janelle James ahead of the CCAs, it was after fans had seen how Ava operated on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia during its crossovers with Abbott Elementary. So, if the sky was the limit, what other show does she think it’d be fun to see Ava on? The actress answered that very question, saying:
She’s still a principal, so where would she go? I’ll just name all my favorite shows, my favorite sitcoms. I always just think about, because a big part of our show is it’s in a low income neighborhood, so I’m like, what would make sense? And it’s Malcolm in the Middle. You know, there’s kids and they’re struggling. And then original Roseanne, which was one of my favorite sitcoms. Let’s see. I mean, Ava herself may be running for office on Veep, and meeting up with Selina Meyer would be amazing. That’s one of my favorite female characters.
Well, both Roseanne and The Connershave wrapped, and they presumably would have been the easiest for an Abbott Elementary crossover due to sharing the same network, and Veep ended back in 2019, but it’s fun to imagine in retrospect Ava turning up on any of them. It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility for Malcolm in the Middle, though. The revival is coming to Hulu in April, and who knows? If it comes back for a second season, maybe we could see Ava on another show, a la Always Sunny.
That may be a stretch, but it’s entertaining to picture after Janelle James’ pitch. It does look like Ava will have her hands full in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future, based on the promo for the upcoming winter premiere of Season 5. Take a look:
Tune in to ABC on Wednesday, January 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET for the winter premiere of Abbott Elementary Season 5, which seems to involve plenty of chaos with the students joining the teachers in the abandoned mall that will evidently be their school for the foreseeable future. You can also catch up on any episodes you might have missed streaming on Hulu, and congratulations again to Janelle James for her Critics Choice Awards win!
