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These were uncharted waters for the 72nd Emmy Awards, the first major acting awards show held since the pandemic began, a bizarre and moderate ceremony in which stars accepted awards at Zoom. But unwanted new methods (the broadcast required more than 100 live streams), and the end of the former Emmy giants Game of Thrones and Veep, ushered in a celebration of new series and talent: Canadian comedy Schitt’s. Creek swept the comedy awards, HBO’s Succession dominated in drama, and the night’s most nominated show, HBO’s prophetic and spooky Watchmen, cleaned up in the limited series category.
Jimmy Kimmel hosted the mostly virtual “Pandemmys” from a nearly empty Staples Center in Los Angeles, with the help of Jennifer Aniston, Ozark actor Jason Bateman and black star Anthony Anderson, as well as giant screens. in the homes of celebrities across the country. Security protocols – masked cameramen, styrofoam cutouts of celebrities in the empty stands – were necessary, Kimmel said, because “this is not a Maga rally, this is the Emmys.”
A year after Fleabag dominated the comedy awards, a single show, Schitt’s Creek, a Canadian production that found a second life and a passionate fan base on Netflix, swept the genre. The cast and crew, including father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, best actress Catherine O’Hara and best supporting actress Annie Murphy, accepted their awards together, wearing masks and sitting a safe distance from Covid. on a set in Canada.
As predicted, Succession, the brutally written and brutally funny HBO drama about a family of scoundrels from a media conglomerate, racked up drama awards, winning best screenplay, direction, best actor for Jeremy Strong, and best series. The show’s British creator, Jesse Armstrong, changed the script with a string of “no thanks” for things that have kept the cast and crew apart for more than half a year: the virus, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and “the tycoons of the media”. they do so much for the people in power.
Other winners of the night included Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for Best Variety Series, RuPaul’s Drag Race for reality competition, and Billy Crudup of The Morning Show for Supporting Actor in a Drama, which gave Apple TV + its only win. of the night.
The fledgling streamer’s disappointment was surpassed by Netflix, which entered the night with a record 160 nominations but emerged with just two wins during the broadcast (Ozark’s Julia Garner for supporting actress in a drama and Unorthodox’s Maria Schrader for directing a limited series) and 21 wins overall. Hardcore Awards HBO topped the night with 30 awards in total, most notably Best Drama Series for Succession and Watchmen for Best Limited Series. Based on a comic book series from the 1980s and using the real-life 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre of “Black Wall Street” as its original story, Watchmen took home 11 awards from 26 nominations, most of the night.
In a year of racial reckoning for America, when millions took to the streets to protest police brutality this summer, the television academy nominated its most diverse roster to date – a record 34.3% of actors. The nominees were black, up from 19.8% in 2019. The 2020 Emmys “were supposed to be the blackest Emmys in history,” Anderson said at one point with Kimmel. “I’m still supporting all black people, because black stories, black performances, and black lives matter,” he said, turning the volume up high enough “so Mike Pence can hear it.
Although the host deviated from many overt political statements, or, in a ceremony packed with 24 awards, many statements at all, several winners, including several black actors, demonstrated their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged viewers to vote on the next national event. choice. Watchmen’s Regina King, accepted for Best Actress in a Limited Series, wore a shirt bearing the name of Breonna Taylor, whose murder by police officers in Louisville in March helped ignite America’s largest civil rights movement in half a century.
Uzo Aduba pointed to his own Breonna Taylor T-shirt as he accepted best supporting actress in a drama series for her role as Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president, on Mrs America: “We are going to change the world.” The Euphoria Zendaya star, who at 24 became the youngest person and the second black woman to win best actress in a drama, yelled at protesters in the streets of the country. “I see you, I admire you, I respect you,” he said.
Mark Ruffalo, the best winning actor for playing identical twins dealing with mental illness on HBO’s I Know This Much Is True, asked viewers to vote “out of love, compassion and kindness.”
“If you have privileges, you have to fight for those who are fighting,” he said.
And Yahya Abdul-Mateen II of Watchmen, who won as a supporting actor in a limited series, dedicated to “all the black women in my life.”
Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof accepted the award for best limited series with a “Remember Tulsa ’21” t-shirt and dedicated the award to the victims of the Black Wall Street fire in Tulsa in 1921. “History is a mystery, it’s broken into a million puzzle pieces and many are missing, “he said.” We have to name it before we can repair it. “
