Fall’s biggest party: The Emmys celebrate television’s best

Fall is nearly here, and that means it’s time for cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice everything and the new primetime television season. After a summer of repeats, it’s finally time for our returning favorites and a new crop of aspiring series.

With both new and old shows vying for our attention, we set aside an evening to look back at the past year and celebrate television’s outstanding achievements. See the stars, relive the best moments and have a good time with the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, airing Monday, Sept. 17, on NBC.

This marks the first time in four years that the peacock network will broadcast the event, and it looks to showcase its bright, young talent with “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost as MCS for the ceremony. Following Stephen Colbert’s (“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”) tremendous performance from last year will be no easy feat, but despite the pressure, the pair is ready to tear down the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Che and Jost discussed how the Emmys will be a nice change of pace from the constant political topics they cover on Weekend Update. “The exciting part is to do things about television and that particular awards ceremony and make it, in general, less political than normal,” Jost said. “There’s a lot to celebrate in television right now. It’s a very strong time.”

Jost is spot on — we’re currently in a new golden age of television. When the nominations were announced by Ryan Eggold (“The Blacklist”) and Samira Wiley (“Orange Is the New Black”) back in July, this was made very clear. The usual complaints followed the announcements, but they quickly dissipated. Instead of focusing on the snubs, people turned their attention to the many surprises and first-time nominations. For instance, this year marks the first time in its nineyear run that the ABC hit “Modern Family” wasn’t nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series — a nod the single-camera comedy has consistently secured since 2009.