Bye Tyrion. Hello newcomers.
Even in the midst of a pandemic, there will be Emmys.
HBO’s “Watchmen” led all shows with 26 Emmy nominations, and Netflix broke the record for most nominations on any network or platform when the Television Academy announced the nominees for the 72nd Emmy Awards on Tuesday.
In the drama category, HBO’s family opera saga “Succession”, Netflix’s most popular crime series “Ozark” and Netflix’s exuberant period piece about Queen Elizabeth II, “The Crown” earned nominations.
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” the Hulu show that won best drama in 2017, also received a nomination, though some critics were great for its third season, which premiered more than a year ago.
And there was a surprise nomination in the best drama category for the Disney + series, “The Mandalorian,” which was a sensation when it debuted on the Walt Disney Company’s new multi-million dollar streaming service in November 2019.
The best show for another new streaming service, the AppleTV + series “The Morning Show,” did not receive recognition in the Best Drama category, but two of its stars, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell, earned nominations for their work on the program.
On the comedy side, Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” received multiple nominations for its latest season, which ended in April. Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, the best comedy winner of 2018, is also back in the mix. Other nominees included Netflix’s “Dead to Me” and HBO’s “Insecure”.
Netflix broke the record for most nominations from any network, studio or broadcast service with 160, breaking the record set by HBO last year. HBO came in second with 107 nominations.
The envelopes are scheduled to be opened on September 20 during a ceremony broadcast on ABC and presented by Jimmy Kimmel.
Long before Covid-19 closed most productions, 2020 was going to be a year of change for television’s biggest award show. Winners of multiple Emmy Awards such as “Game of Thrones,” “Veep,” and “Fleabag” are out of the competition, leaving a void in drama and comedy races, a rarity for an evening that is usually filled with repeat champions.
Filmed remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic, “Saturday Night Live” alum Leslie Jones hosted the ad event, and this time there were more nominations than ever. The Television Academy said last month that the drama and comedy categories would be expanded to eight nominees each.
At a time when the number of television series peaked, there were more than 500 last year, the number of Emmy submissions increased by 15 percent, the academy said. Members of the Television Academy will cast their votes for the winners between August 21-31.
Will Olivia Colman’s royal career continue?
Of all the acting categories, the best actress in a drama was the most star-studded.
Olivia Colman’s turn as Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown scored a Nomination on Tuesday, and an Emmy Award would be a nice complement to the Golden Globe that she won in January for the role and the Oscar that she won in 2019 for her portrayal of Queen Anne in “The Favorite”.
Four-time Emmy winner Laura Linney, an “Ozark” star, earned a nomination. And Mrs. Aniston, who plays an overwhelmed newscaster on “The Morning Show,” earned her first nomination in 11 years. (She was last nominated for a special appearance on “30 Rock”).
Last year’s winner Jodie Comer, an AMC “Killing Eve” star, is back, as is her co-star Sandra Oh, who never won an Emmy. Zendaya was nominated for HBO’s “Euphoria”.
How competitive was this category? Snubs include Reese Witherspoon for “The Morning Show,” Nicole Kidman for “Big Little Lies,” and 2017 Best Actress Winner Elisabeth Moss for “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
‘Ms. Latin ‘duels’ Rangers’.
The limited series category has become the most intriguing of the Emmy ceremony, with its big stars and the tens of millions invested by cable networks and broadcast companies in individual short seasons.
This year’s contest will be a showdown between two ambitious programs that addressed social issues: “Ms. America,” the FX drama and Hulu that chronicles the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment; and “Watchmen,” HBO’s groundbreaking twist on a hard-to-adapt superhero graphic novel.
The other nominees in the category were Netflix’s “Amazing”, one of the most popular streamer original series in 2019, along with another Netflix series, “Unorthodox” and “Little Fires Everywhere” by Hulu.
It seems that the best actress in a limited series career will be a battle between Cate Blanchett, who plays the conservative Phyllis Schlafly in “Mrs. America” and Regina King, the masked hero of “Watchmen”.
Merritt Wever was also nominated for “Amazing” along with Octavia Spencer for Netflix’s “Self-Made” and Shira Haas for Netflix’s “Unorthodox”.
Will it be a remote ceremony or what?
Here’s what we know for sure about the Emmys ceremony: ABC will air the broadcast, and his late-night personality Jimmy Kimmel will return as the show’s host for the third time.
And that’s it.
Will it be virtual? Will it be live? Will winners give acceptance speeches through Zoom?
That even it is An award ceremony in the middle of a pandemic?
The Television Academy has provided no information, but with ratings from live television events in recent months, a charming and impromptu awards ceremony could be rekindling interest in the Emmys.
Last year, the broadcast reached a record low in the ratings, with an audience of 6.9 million.
