While the COVID-19 pandemic caused many awards shows to be canceled or postponed, the 72nd Emmy Awards are ready to go in full (virtual) swing. Late-night favorite Jimmy Fallon is set to host the Emmys on Sept. 20, however, no guidelines or other information has been released.
The nominations were announced on July 28 via a Twitter livestream featuring Leslie Jones, Laverne Cox, Josh Gad and Tatiana Maslany, but not before a few words from Television Academy Chairman & CEO Frank Scherma.
“As we persevere through the thick of a pandemic, the scale of which we have not seen in a century, television is right there with us: informing us, educating us and yet still managing to entertain us,” Scherma said. “This year we are also bearing witness to one of the greatest fights for social justice in history and it is our duty to use this medium for change … amplifying the voices that must be heard and telling the stories that must be told.”
As the fight against racism and social injustice is raging across the country, diversity in the entertainment industry is more important than ever. The reoccurring conversation we have during the awards season about the lack of representation and diversity in nominations seems to gain more traction every year. While the Emmys have never had a public scandal, such as the popular #OscarsSoWhite, a Los Angeles Times article, published one day before the nomination announcement, shows that the Emmys haven’t done much better.
According to the article “from 2015 to 2019, 82% of the nominees in 19 prime-time Emmy categories were white.” Black people made up 14% of the nominations, Asian people 2%, and Latinx and Other both 1%. The categories studied included the 12 major acting, directing and writing categories for comedy, drama, and limited series plus directing for variety series.
This year, there were 35 Black performers nominated for acting awards, and each acting category included at least one person of color. This included veteran winners like Billy Porter for Pose, Laverne Cox for Orange is the New Black, and Sterling K. Brown for both This Is Us and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. There were also some new faces who made their Emmy nomination debut including Zendaya for Euphoria, Jeremy Pope for Hollywood, and William Jackson Harper who received his long-deserved nomination for his role as Chidi in the fourth and final season of The Good Place. After it was announced that Octavia Spencer had nabbed her first Emmy nomination for Self Made: Inspired By The Life Of Madam C.J. Walker, livestream host Leslie Jones yelled “Octavia, Regina and Kerry, oh my goodness this is a great day!”
Gender representation has frequently been a problem during awards season, recently seen during the 2020 Oscars when the Best Director category was only men. Following the uproar, Natalie Portman famously wore a cape embroidered with the names of snubbed female directors to the Oscars. Additionally, Chris Rock and Steve Martin opened the show by addressing the lack of women in the directing category and the lack of Black people in the acting category.
Once again, the Emmys have not faced severe backlash due to their lack of gender representation. However, this year’s Emmy nominations included 16 women in the directing category out of 48 and 13 female writers out of 40. While these numbers still are not ideal, the representation does seem to be increasing.
During this time of racial reckoning, the Emmys have seemingly listened to what is being said and stepped up to make a change. However, while the nominations of Black people rose this year, the lack of Latinx nominations is glaring.
Streaming services have just about taken over everybody’s living room, especially in the age of quarantine and work from home, and now they are proving to be giants during the awards season as well. This year’s Emmys nominations seemed to be a fight between Netflix and HBO. While HBO’s Watchman raked in the most nominations with 26, Netflix broke the record for the most nominations of any network, studio or streaming platform with 160 nominations. The record was previously set by HBO in 2019. Some of Netflix’s notable nominations include Ozark, Stranger Things, Dead To Me, The Crown, even Tiger King received nominations, which I like to think I played a big part in after how many times I watched that series during early quarantine.
Additionally, Amazon Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel earned 20 nominations, Disney+ received 19, including an impressive Outstanding Drama Series nomination for The Mandalorian. Hulu earned 26 nominations and Apple TV + garnered 18, mostly for their hit series The Morning Show. Newbie streaming service Quibi got 10 nominations.
Pop TV’s hit series Schitt’s Creek, which aired its final season this year, was another notable nomination. The Canadian series has gained popularity among American viewers since hitting Netflix in 2017. The series hit big in the comedy category racking up 15 nominations including Outstanding Comedy Series. The four main actors, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy and Daniel Levy, all received acting nominations as well. Dan Levy was also nominated for outstanding writing and directing.
Alongside every award show, there are the snubs of your favorite actor that you thought deserved it all. For example, Reese Witherspoon who was in three highly nominated series, Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show and Big Little Lies, did not make the nomination list. However, this year saw more television shows and platforms than ever before, which led to more Emmy categories and slots than we’ve ever seen. With all these great television shows, it’s hard to narrow down the list, but I’m sure your favorite stars would love to hear you sound off on Twitter about how they were robbed.
The 72nd Emmy Awards air Sunday Sept. 20 on ABC.