Virtual Emmy Awards Coming Up – What are they going to look like?

This year’s Emmy Awards, which is a television industry-based award night, was hosted virtually by Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday, September 20th. Kimmel was live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, without a live audience. To see the people who won the awards the producers sent 130 cameras out to nominees in 10 different countries (CNN). This year’s Emmys was similar to your zoom classes with a little more flair and better editing. Any embarrassing moments that happened around the nominees on camera were live, including funny faces and telephones ringing. 

Because everything was virtual this makes some parts of the Emmys difficult to recreate. One part is the red carpet; it’s kind of hard to have a bunch of people walking strutting their stuff while being interviewed over zoom. Instead “red carpet” interviews were done virtually and there was less of a focus on fashion. People being interviewed were zooming in from all over the country, causing similar problems we see in class such as, talking over each other and the general awkwardness of talking over video. Another change was the removal of the orchestra and in its place was DJ D-Nice, much easier for social distancing if you ask me. Finally, an important part of the Emmys that had to be altered was the receiving of the award itself, which is hard to do if the awards are not in person. Presenters dressed in hazmat suits holding awards went to as many nominees’ houses and hotel rooms and waited to see if they won the award. If the nominee did not win the person in the suit waved and walked away. (Thrillist). Even though everything was virtual this year I believe everyone did the best they could within the circumstances of living in a pandemic.

In the Emmys, there are plenty of awards to be won. TV shows are broken up into a variety of categories including comedy, drama, limited series, movie, reality, short-form, variety. From these categories we have subcategories that include things like best actress/actor, directing, and writing. Other large award categories include the making and production of the shows such as animation, choreography, costume design and supervision, and music, etc. Rest assured there were a ton of awards given out on Sunday night. I am not going to mention them all because they would take forever, but here are a few notable winners from this year’s Emmys 

Avengers Hulk Mark Ruffalo in (“I Know This Much is True ”) won the outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie. Schitt’s Creek actors and actresses won all the comedy series outstanding lead actress/actor and supporting actress/actor awards. The show won a total of nine Emmys, and Daniel Levy won four Emmys on Sunday, for writing, directing, producing, and acting in “Schitt’s Creek.” Zendaya in “Euphoria” won outstanding lead actress in a drama series and became the youngest Emmy winner for best actress in a drama at the age of 24. Funny enough “Jimmy Kimmel Live” did not win the outstanding variety talk series award, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” won. (New York Times). Other highlights include Jason Bateman making an in-person appearance pretending to be a cardboard cutout of nominees in the front row and HER performing a cover of the song “Nothing Compares 2 U” during a Memoriam segment 

Overall the remote acceptance speeches were successful, but the banter was a little awkward. Multiple people in their speeches addressed the need to vote. Furthermore, the theme of racial justice was addressed. Regina King wore a Breonna Taylor shirt when accepting her Emmy for best actress in a limited series or movie. Uzo Abuba who was in “Mrs. America” also wore a shirt with Taylor on it. Other nominees wore BLM shirts in support of Black Lives Matter. After acknowledging the amount of Black Emmy nominees for 2020, Anthony Anderson who was nominated for “black-ish” started chanting “Black lives matter” and urged Kimmel to say it was well commenting, “Say it so that Mike Pence can hear it”. (New York Times)

The Emmys is a night of expression and gratitude. While this year’s Emmys took an unconventional route it’s great to see people still being recognized for their hard work and art in the television industry. Hopefully next year people will be able to gather together to celebrate televisions exceptional accomplishments.