It could have gone all wrong, but the mainly virtual Emmys had a voice & a heartAP
“These are the strangest of days,” Catherine O’Hara said Sunday night when the Schitt’s Creek star grabbed the Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. That’s putting it politely, as Canadians so often do.
The SCTV alum was standing in a masked and socially distanced Toronto viewing party with her castmates, but O’Hara also nailed the paradox of pulling off the 2020 Emmy Awards in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
With Jimmy Kimmel back for a hat-trick hosting stint, the three-hour-plus ceremony saw big wins for Schitt’s Creek, Watchmen, Succession, Euphoria’s Zendaya, The Morning Show’s Billy Crudup and Ozark’s Julia Garner. What the HBO-dominated Emmys also saw was a big warning to the Golden Globes and the Oscars to be prepared to up their game before hitting the air next year, virtual or not.
Part of that new high bar is that everything went off flawlessly from a technical point of view for what my colleague Pete Hammond rightly called a Herculean task. However, like the difference between prog rock and punk rock, there was more than the daunting logistics of handing out awards for 23 top small-screen categories at stake. Sunday’s Emmys risked being tripped almost from the beginning by dead air or the threat thereof.
With an A+ for effort and a B+ for execution, it was an obstacle the ceremony executive produced by Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart primarily overcame.
“What could possibly go right?” asked Kimmel. Well, it turns out, almost everything.
The digital high-wire act came in strongest and most intimately near the end with the In Memoriam that started off with a moving tribute to recently departed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and had a Prince soundtrack via H.E.R. In an era where awards shows often find new ways to face-plant, that loving look at those the industry has lost was followed by Governors Award recipient Tyler Perry’s poetic words that unveiled the power of true change in an America that often seems more frayed than ever. Then there was that joyful kiss that Succession’s stunned Jeremy Strong gave to the person who handed him his Emmy off-camera at home.
For an America and industry that is pretty much Zoomed out, those up-close and personal moments in a time when many of us feel so isolated from each other over the past six months, were the real wins.
“Hello and welcome to the Pandemmys,” said Kimmel kicking off the ABC show from a near empty Staples Center in downtown LA. In seats punctuated by cardboard cutouts and, for a short time, Ozark’s Jason Bateman, the late-night host was determined to make the best of a COVID-19-determined raw deal. Spotlighting a Hollywood shut down since March due to the global health crisis and the chaotic response here in America, the Emmys had a lot riding on them this year.
Yes, the Friends mini-reunion and Bateman’s subsequent photo bombing was pure cheese and the overall energy level waned more than once (talking to you, David Letterman), despite one-man band D-Nice’s best efforts and beats. That’s OK, because the 72nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards ended up being much better than anyone presumed or maybe even thought it deserved to be – which is a win by any measure.
“The world may be terrible, but TV has never been better,” Kimmel asserted in his opening on a night that saw the broadcast networks virtually ignored in the prestigious categories despite the sarcastic best efforts of past winner Sterling K. Brown.
That’s debatable to some extent, but from footage of star-studded audiences from past awards shows at the start to a game Jennifer Aniston, fire extinguishers and trophy black boxes, this slice of television soon saw the novelty value expire.
There were needless skits on Emmy Delivery Training and Russian infiltration of the USPS filling up time. Beyond that, however, a real narrative emerged on Sunday’s Emmys that had truly something to say.
On a night that saw record wins by African-Americans, the emphasis on the power of inclusion and representation as told by the likes of Anthony Anderson staunchly declaring Black Lives Matter, Lena Waithe, America Ferrera and Cynthia Ervo, stated this was an Emmys for 2020. Closer to home for Hollywood, the sit-down segment with Insecure’s Issa Rae on how a meeting with a bigoted executive early in her career left her “fuming” and re-motivated in its discrimination was just as razor sharp. The Emmy nominee cut to the bone when she said, “You know, one of us got fired after that.”
The participation of frontline essential workers and health care worker to TV’s big night was a lovely bow to some real-life superstars. Yet, truth be told, for a town that loves to opine, we could have done with much more political and cultural riposte in the final stretch before America votes on if Donald Trump or Joe Biden will be POTUS and just days after the death of the Notorious RBG.
With the exception of Succession boss Jessie Armstrong un-thanking the former Celebrity Apprentice host, there seems to have been an agreement to never mention the current occupant of the White House by name tonight. In fact, the names of former VP Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris went unspoken also, but you certainly could pick up what was being put down.
Kimmel didn’t hide where this was all coming from when he proclaimed “this isn’t a MAGA rally, it’s the Emmys” over not having a real and potentially superspreading audience in front of him.
The host wasn’t the only one.
Pleading with Americans to “have a voting plan” and closing with a “rest in power RBG,” Regina King’s two-minute-plus acceptance speech for her Watchmen Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie win had more to say about the state of the nation than most cable newsers’ primetime schedules.
He never said Trump, yet, following with his own Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie victory, I Know This Much Is True’s Mark Ruffalo took to the stump too in a passionate plea for “love, strength” and an equal opportunity American Dream.
In true Rose family fashion, Dan Levy and the Schitt’s Creek team put on a show of their own with their party up North. Promising everyone had been tested and advocating artists be a “bull in the china shop,”Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof held a West LA shindig for the HBO show’s writing staff too. Both were a contrast to the Staples Center presentations by Black-ish’s semi-political Tracee Ellis Ross, a COVID-19-tested Jason Sudeikis and the at-home glimpses of non-winning nominees in various categories. Like the Emmys themselves, they were just all too long, as losing nominees Ramy Youssef and Taika Waititi displayed when they individually caught the moment with tweets:
From almost the day this very different Emmys ceremony was announced, Kimmel and the producers have been working overtime to play down expectations.
Often unprompted, the host and the people BTS have predicted glitches, virtual SNAFUs and record-low ratings. With hundreds of camera kits sent out to nominees all over the City of Angels and the world, wildfires raging in the Golden State, potentially unstable Wi-Fi and a plethora of wild-card factors always a possibility, the “live without a net” element of the whole thing managed to be much more exhilarating than it was excruciating.
Still, the fact is the L.A.-based Kimmel faced both the NFL’sSunday Night Football on NBC and the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Denver Nuggets in a dramatic second game of the Western Conference Finals in the NBA’s bubble playoffs on TNT. Coming off last year’s hostless show’s record-low ratings, the quality of the 2020 Emmy Awards will have problems snagging a big quantity of eyeballs tonight.
Which is a hard reality and a shame, because the show was fun and, despite what Kimmel insisted in his opening monologue, it was important too. And that’s certainly a win in these very strange days.
Some things never change. Here we are at the end of the 72nd Emmy Awards and once again the story in terms of major wins is HBO, proving it could lose Emmy juggernauts like Game of Thrones and Veep and one year later come back just as strong with wins in Best Drama Series for Succession, and Limited Series for Watchmen, plus on top of that pulling off an upset win making Zendaya the youngest winner ever in Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Euphoria, a year-old show few thought would be remembered at Emmy time.
Of course, HBO is sharing the glory on this night with Pop TV and the absolute rout in the comedy categories, with all seven of those wins going to Schitt’s Creek, a comeback story like no other in its sixth and final season. The irony, as I have previously noted (and did again in tonight’s live blog), is that the series probably owes some of this success to Netflix, which picked up reruns of its earlier seasons. That certainly led to a much bigger audience discovering the brilliant series, which after that exposure landed a few nominations last season and the whole boatload of them this year. Eugene Levy in his Comedy Series acceptance did acknowledge Netflix. It was a similar kind of boost the streamer gave a few years ago to AMC’s Breaking Bad, and it engineered the same result for that series.
The sad fact for Netflix, which came in with a leading 160 nominations this year for 52 different shows, is that they leave this Emmy night with only two wins on the Primetime broadcast (they won another 19 over the course of this week’s Creative Arts ceremonies), once again for Julia Garner’s supporting turn as the feisty Ruth on Ozark and one for direction for the limited series Unorthodox. That’s one less than last year on the big Emmy broadcast.
In terms of streamers, it was a largely unimpressive showing tonight with little to shout about for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Normal People, and nothing for Amazon’s nomination-leading series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (although that did pick up some tech awards at Creative Arts). Disney+ had seven wins at the Creative Arts but missed out, predictably, for Drama Series for its freshman series The Mandalorian. Apple TV+, in its first Emmy outing, actually nearly tied Netflix tonight when Billy Crudup took Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for its marquee series The Morning Show. That brand new streamer spent a lot on its first Emmy campaign and probably should be happy just to have gotten on the board against stiff competition.
ABC
I do get a little tired of a lot of the same shows that seem to win year after year in other categories, like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Saturday Night Live and the like. Comedy Central had put a lot of effort into trying to get a seminal season for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah the big Emmy win for Variety Talk Series, but HBO just ran over them with Oliver again. Comedy Central probably shouldn’t complain as its Daily Show With Jon Stewart won for something like a decade. Academy voters do tend to repeat, and though Television Academy membership has expanded, the voters are pretty much the same.
It is nice to see, however, after Jharrel Jerome’s Lead Actor in a Limited Series win last year for When They See Us, and now Zendaya’s in Euphoria, that the Academy is not ageist and not averse to rewarding new generations.
ABC
As for the show itself, it is a damn shame the Emmys take their own show out of eligibility to actually win Emmys. With the Herculean technological logistics involved, the gutsy decisions by producers Jimmy Kimmel, Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart and their teams to really make the effort, this was one of the best Emmy shows ever, and in fact stands up I think the some of the best awards shows period. The technical snafus were almost non-existent, and that, considering they were dealing with 130 selfie camera feeds from around the world, is no small feat. The In Memoriam segment and the Tyler Perry Governors Award both knocked it out of the park; Mark Ruffalo (with passion and purpose) and Jesse Armstrong (with his “Un-thank yous” to Donald and Boris) were highlights; and among the presenters Jennifer Aniston gets MVP (especially with that half-a-Friends reunion).
ABC
I said months ago that COVID-19 might actually force the Television Academy to rethink the Emmys for the better and create a broadcast that walked right out on the ledge of being a trainwreck. They didn’t look back and produced a fun, lively, vibrant Emmys for the ages, certainly one that will be remembered. And Kimmel, no stranger to hosting this kind of thing, topped himself, proving a host is a very good thing to have. I suspect the Oscars are going to be looking at the Emmys for guidance unless a miracle cure for the coronavirus is on the way sooner than we, if not Trump, thinks, and the Motion Picture Academy should look no further than what Kimmel, obviously a past Oscar show host, and Hudlin, a past Oscar show producer, have pulled off with a very competent production team in a very challenging situation. The KIA Emmy statuette delivery bits were another brilliant touch, especially when you consider the dreary Creative Arts shows the Academy put on all week, showing how not to do awards shows in the midst of a pandemic.
ABC
And the Emmy voters, other than some of the tried-and-true repeat winners mentioned above, can also pat themselves on the back for recognizing winners of the quality of Schitt’s Creek, Succession and Watchmen. After last year’s Emmys, when something that might have been considered out of left field like Fleabag dominated, this is a trend toward being pretty cool that is nice to see.
Emmys 2020: A glitch-free technical triumph and a thrilling comedy sweep for Schitt’s Creek
Schitt’s Creek claimed 7 comedy awards, while Watchmen scored most Emmys
Jackson Weaver · CBC News · Posted: Sep 21, 2020 4:29 AM ET | Last Updated: September 21
Eugene Levy, left, and Daniel Levy from Schitt’s Creek accept the Emmy for outstanding comedy series during the 72nd Emmy Awards telecast on Sunday. The show went on to win a historic seven awards. (Invision/Television Academy/AP)
It was a night of pitchy Zoom audio, surprisingly few technical issues and historic wins — particularly for Canadian comedy Schitt’s Creek — at the 72nd Annual Emmy Awards on Sunday.
Though organizers had to dispatch nearly 130 camera kits to nominees around the globe to accommodate stars staying at home due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, everything came together despite early predictions of dropped calls and general disaster.
Here are some of the highlights from a night of upsets, historic wins and big statements.
“Hello and welcome to the pand-Emmys,” host Jimmy Kimmel announced to open the event. The late-night show host’s opening monologue was an open acknowledgement of both the strangeness and frivolity of putting on an awards show during a pandemic.
At first, the crowd looked like that of a typical awards event, with pans of the audience showing smiling and laughing stars. That is until Kimmel admitted he was mostly alone, revealing the empty seats of the deserted Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks on stage in front of empty seats at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Though the building was mostly empty, the event came together as a technical triumph. (The Television Academy and ABC Entertainment/The Associated Press)
“All alone,” Kimmel quipped. “Just like prom night.”
He went on to address the seemingly bizarre reason the Television Academy chose to proceed with the show. It could be considered “frivolous and unnecessary,” to go during a pandemic, he said, but how is that unlike any other year?
“What’s happening tonight is not important,” Kimmel said. “It’s not going to stop COVID. It’s not going to put out the fires, but it’s fun. And right now, we need fun. My God, do we need fun.”
After the monologue, the show kicked off with the comedy awards. Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy snagged Emmys for best comedy actress and actor off the top, and that was only the beginning for the much-beloved, made-in-Canada Schitt’s Creek.
The show went on to sweep the comedy awards, nabbing top honours in all seven categories. After O’Hara and Levy’s wins, Annie Murphy took the Emmy for best supporting actress, and Daniel Levy took three — best supporting actor, comedy writing and best director of a comedy series alongside Andrew Cividin. It was an Emmys first, something no other comedy has achieved before.
WATCH | Kimmell jokes about Canada’s Stanley Cup drought after Schitt’s Creek wins big:
After the Canadian series Schitt’s Creek swept the Emmy Awards comedy category, host Jimmy Kimmell reminded Canadians of the one trophy they didn’t win
“If they’d won one more Emmy, they would have been able to trade them in for this,” Kimmel joked and revealed a mock Stanley Cup. “But they didn’t, so we’re going to keep it here for another 27 years.”
Kimmel aimed one more joke at Schitt’s Creek before moving on, saying ABC censors demanded the show display the Schitt’s Creek logo whenever the TV show’s name was mentioned — to clarify what was being referenced. When the comedy show won every award in the first hour of the broadcast, the logo appeared frequently.
HBO vs. Netflix
Schitt’s Creek wasn’t the only series to receive some love — as the most nominated show of the night,HBO’s limited series Watchmen didn’t disappoint. It was named best limited series, while star Regina King took home outstanding lead actress. The show earned the most Emmys of the night with 11 awards — not a surprise given Watchmen had the most nominations with 26.
It also marked a stunning success for the network, which has been pitched in an ongoing battle with streaming giant Netflix.
The first seven #Emmys of the night have gone to "Schitt's Creek."
The stars of "Schitt's Creek" have won all four major acting categories.
Though Netflix set a record for the most nominations with 160, it won just 21, well behind HBO’s 30 awards, which included statues for both Watchmen and its other success story, Succession. The show, about a dysfunctional family in charge of a global media empire,took home the top prize of best drama.
A night of upsets
Succession also scored awards for best writing for drama and directing for drama, and it won statues for lead actor in a drama series for Jeremy Strong. Strong beat his co-star Brian Cox, who plays Strong’s father on the show and was widely expected to win. The award marked Strong’s first-ever Emmy nomination.
That wasn’t the only upset of the night. Actor Zendaya won for her performance in the series Euphoria, with her team erupting into loud, screaming applause behind her.
WATCH | Schitt’s Creek wins big at Emmy Awards:
CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek picked up multiple awards at the 72nd Emmy Awards held virtually, and with no red carpet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At 24, Zendaya is the youngest to win an Emmy for lead actress in a drama, and she beat out Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer for their work on Killing Eve, Jennifer Aniston for The Morning Show, Laura Linney for Ozark and Olivia Colman for The Crown.
“I just want to say there is hope in the young people out there,” Zendaya said in her acceptance speech. “I know that our TV show doesn’t always feel like a great example of that, but there is hope in the young people.”
Impassioned messages
The virtual nature of the Emmy program didn’t lessen the number of impassioned speeches. Actor Anthony Anderson coaxed Kimmel into shouting “Black Lives Matter” before presenting the nominees for outstanding limited series. Daniel Levy encouraged members of the audience to register to vote, and Sterling K. Brown presented the final award of the night while sporting a Black Lives Matter T-shirt.
Sterling K. Brown presents the award for outstanding drama series, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt under his blazer. (The Television Academy and ABC Entertainment/The Associated Press)
There were various other commentaries, some more lighthearted than others, including one moment from Ramy Youssef, creator of the comedy series Ramy.
Youssef was up for both best directing and best lead actor in a comedy series, both of which ultimately went to Schitt’s Creek. Even still, a hazmat wearing presenter showed up to Youssef’s home, only to wave goodbye once the real winners were announced.
“When you lose the Emmy,” Youssef captioned a tweet. An attached video showed the presenter walking away with the golden statue, revealing what happens when you don’t win at the COVID-19-shaped Emmys.
Reginald Hudlin Talks Producing Virtual Emmys During Pandemic: “There’s Going to Be Cameras Across the Country”
6:30 AM PDT 9/16/2020 by Michael O’Connell
Photographed by Michele Thomas
“Of course I used to spend time at production offices in Hollywood or Santa Monica, but the work-from-home thing hasn’t been a radical shock,” says Reginald Hudlin, who was photographed Sept. 7 at his home in Beverly Hills.
The veteran producer-director shares the challenges and upsides of producing TV’s biggest night remotely as well as worries that streaming may reduce the communal experience.
Reginald Hudlin — Reggie, to those in his esteemed inner circle — didn’t go into shock when Californians were told to work from home back in March.
The Los Angeles house he shares with his PR vet wife, Chrisette, and two children has been his base of operations for over a decade now. “When I ran BET, I went into the office every day,” he says of his 2005-08 tenure as president of entertainment at the Viacom network. “But once I went back to independent production, I realized that an office is just a hole in my pocket.”
As a trailblazing filmmaker (HouseParty, Boomerang), an Oscar-nominated producer (Django Unchained), a comic book scribe (BlackPanther), a prolific TV director (NewGirl, BlackMonday) and a former network exec, Hudlin is a true Hollywood jack-of-all-trades.
On Sept. 20, he’ll add executive producer of the Primetime Emmy Awards, alongside host Jimmy Kimmel and event producers Done+Dusted, to that résumé. Their live telecast, the most ambitious since COVID-19 made standard production impossible, will see Kimmel emceeing from a vacant Staples Center as upwards of 140 camera crews are deployed around the globe to capture nominees and winners at home.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom earlier in September, the 58-year-old talked about the logistics that this plan entails, having a friend on the Democratic presidential ticket and why he prides himself on his eclectic résumé: “I’m just working off the bucket list I’ve had since I was 12.”
Photographed by Michele Thomas
“The Black Panther mask was given to me at San Diego Comic-Con by a cosplayer who wore it as part of his costume,” says Hudlin, who wrote the comic for years.
This is the first event of its scale to go live since the pandemic began. How important was it that you not pretape?
If it’s a performance-based show, it’s easier and maybe preferable to do a bunch of pretaped elements. For the Emmys, where the whole thing is being driven by the reveal of who the winners are, it needs to be live. Jimmy loves live, so we were all in agreement that we needed to fight to preserve that. That’s led to a vast array of logistical challenges. (Laughs.)
What’s the biggest?
We’re going to have the nominees in their homes, backyards, hotels. There’s going to be cameras across the country, in the U.K., in Berlin, in Tel Aviv. We’re going to be based in the Staples Center because it’s the only place big enough so the crew can keep appropriate distance and we can manage that much data coming in and going out.
Photographed by Michele Thomas
“I’m a regular at Golden Apple [Comics] on Melrose,” says Hudlin of his comic book collection and art. In 2015, Hudlin was tapped to relaunch DC Comics’ Milestone Media imprint.
Photographed by Michele Thomas
On the eve of the show, what will you be worried about?
It’s a live event, so there are things you don’t know. We don’t know who the winner is. And we’ve said, “Why don’t you tell us? We’ll keep the secret. No? Fine then.” If a winner is in London, and it’s 4 in the morning and they’ve fallen asleep, we don’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s presuming all these connections are good. Our motto for the entire production is, “What could go wrong?”
Given Hollywood’s attempt to course-correct the lack of Black storytelling as part of a larger reckoning, are you dusting off any old pitches?
Oh God! (Gestures behind him.) You see this closet? That’s full of really good ideas that can’t get made.
But maybe now?
It used to be when you went to pitch a Black project, there was this thing called the preamble. And when I did the preamble, I had to explain that Black culture is pop culture. (In a kindergarten teacher voice:) “Have you ever noticed that the biggest stars in every medium are Black? Look at Eddie Murphy. Look at Will Smith.” You had to explain the racial physics of the entertainment business — not that anyone was racist; they literally never thought about it. “Oh, I never noticed that pattern.”
Photographed by Michele Thomas
A fan of George Clinton, Hudlin directed the funk musician’s 1993 music video for “Paint the White House Black.”
Have those conversations changed at all?
“The market for that’s going to be very small” — it’s not like I don’t hear that still. The difference is, I say to them, “My life is a refutation of what you’re saying.” I’ve seen the people who say, “Well, based on the financial models …” come and go. But their historicals are only based on what’s been done. My whole career is doing things that have never been done and being very successful at it.
What is some memorable pushback?
When I pitched House Party, people said: “Black movies don’t sell. Teen movies don’t sell. You have a Black teen movie. No one wants to see that.” Right. When we were shopping Django, they’d wait for Quentin Tarantino to leave the room. Then they’d go, “Black movies don’t travel internationally. Westerns don’t travel internationally. You have a Black Western. Nobody wants to see that.” They’re wrong every time. HouseParty was one of the most profitable movies of that decade. Django made a half-billion dollars. The pushback is the sign I’m on the right track. Hopefully things are changing. I’m happy to not have to fight anymore, but I’m always ready.
Photographed by Michele Thomas
You directed Safety, out later this year, for Disney+. Is a theatrical release still important to you?
Listen, streaming is fantastic. Look at how robust it’s made documentary or mid-budget movies that could never compete with the blockbusters. There’s no “ABC Movie of the Week.” The Brian’s Song of today gets made on a streamer. The challenge, and COVID is certainly adding to the danger, is making sure one doesn’t cannibalize the other. My kids haven’t been to a theater in a long time. And the phone sometimes beats the big screen in our house, which drives me crazy. “You will not watch Snowpiercer on your phone! You will go upstairs and watch it as it was intended!” It’s scary. I don’t want the communal experience reduced to what live theater is — people seeing maybe one or two plays a year, and only if they live in big cities. Motion pictures must remain a populist experience and not an elite one.
You and your wife introduced vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris to her husband, Doug Emhoff. How do you feel about dinner with your friends potentially requiring a lot more logistics?
Kamala is a wonderful person, Doug’s a great guy, and I feel very hopeful about the future of our country. When I look at Kamala with Joe Biden, when I see the enthusiasm that the public has for them, the promise of what could be, all I can say is, please vote. Please, please vote.
