Television lovers of the world, unite! It’s almost the day of the 70th annual Primetime Emmy Awards — the must-watch awards show for fans of the silver screen. Every year, those who put endless work into the best comedies and dramas on TV are celebrated for their outstanding achievements that provide audiences with high-quality entertainment. There are hundreds of individuals working behind the scenes to make us laugh, cry and gasp on a nightly basis, and the Emmys, airing Monday, Sept. 17, are a way to honor them.
This year, the Emmy Awards will be hosted by “Saturday Night Live” comedians Colin Jost and Michael Che. The chemistry and rapport between these two funnymen is evident when they host SNL’s “Weekend Update,” and it will be exciting to see how this plays out in front of a packed theatre of stars. Jost and Che have obviously had their fair share of practice when it comes to live television, but what will the dynamic be when their live audience is not a select group of doting fans, but hundreds upon hundreds of esteemed celebrities?
Many of the shows that are nominated this year are ones you may expect – HBO’s big-budget “Game of Thrones” topped the chart at number of nominations, with 22 total this year. HBO is continuing its big-budget hot streak with “Westworld,” which is tied with “Saturday Night Live” for the second-most nominations at 22. Despite two of its programs sitting pretty with the highest number of nominations, HBO is not the network that received the most nominations. Netflix tops the network chart, with a whopping 112 nominations. HBO is right on its tail, however, with 108 nominations, followed by NBC with 78.
Netflix’s success in receiving the most network nominations is most likely due to the fact that it has been churning out original content across a wide variety of genres, and some of these programs, like “The Crown” and “Stranger Things” (with 13 and 12 Emmy nominations respectively), have really hit their strides and gained mass praise and fan following. Some other top-nominated series come from an array of networks, including “The Handmaid’s Tale” from Hulu with 20 nominations and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” from FX with 18 nominations. A list of the top-nominated networks and series can be found here.
The categories for awards themselves cover a wide variety and serve to recognize a lot of key players who contribute immensely to the final product of the show, but may be unsung heroes. Awards will be given to best comedies, dramas, actors and actresses, but they will also be given to individuals such as the best director for a variety series and best writer for a limited series, movie or drama. As television viewers, the Emmy Awards act as a reminder that it’s not just our favorite on-screen stars that make a show good, but also those who write their stories and tell them exactly what to do. A full list of nominations can be found in this article by The New York Times.
Monday night will prove to be an entertaining and exciting few hours full of high-end fashion, notable stars, and golden statuettes. There are bound to be some surprises – tune into The Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 17, to see what they’ll be!
