The 2020 Emmys: The year (almost) everything went to
“Am I wrong to think that was the best Emmys ceremony in years?” asked Daniel D’Addario in Variety.com. Though any fan would prefer seeing all of TV’s stars in one room again, just because that’d mean the pandemic is behind us, last Sunday’s Emmy broadcast—the first major awards show of the social-distancing era—“met its moment with élan.” With Jimmy Kimmel hosting from an empty Staples Center in Los Angeles and the honorees beamed in through 140 video feeds, the producers turned the strangeness of the event into a strength. Schitt’s Creek, a comedy launched on Canadian television, swept up so many deserved awards that the first hour grew tedious. But the acceptance speeches throughout were more graceful than usual, and the night’s other big winners, HBO’s Succession and Watchmen, are shows that garnered their laurels at “exactly the right moment.”
Not that Schitt’s Creek’s triumph didn’t seem fitting, said Jen Chanel in NYMag.com. The onetime niche comedy became a popular pandemic binge-watch once its past seasons moved to Netflix, and the fact that winners Daniel Levy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Annie Murphy were able to gather in Toronto to celebrate their record-setting night “served as a subtextual reminder that other countries are doing much better than America is right now.” Succession, a second series with an all-white creative team and all-white cast, later picked up the top drama prize and three other honors. But in a year that’s been “anything but” business as usual, a record seven black actors won awards, including 24-year-old surprise best actress winner Zendaya (for the HBO drama Euphoria), while the superb limited series Watchmen, featuring Regina King as a black female superhero, garnered 11 honors. And while the ratings declined compared with past Emmy broadcasts, said Josef Adalian, also in NYMag.com, oldschool ABC had to admit that the audience of 6.1 million was the biggest it has had since April. “Yay?”