The best and worst of the ‘Pandemmys’ telecast
Kelly Lawler tracks the highlights and lowlights of an Emmys broadcast like no other.
“Hello and welcome to the Pandemmys!” • That’s how host Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the 2020 Emmy Awards, a show unlike any other in the 72-year history of the TV awards ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no audience in the Los Angeles Staples Center, so host Jimmy Kimmel stood on the stage alone. There was no red carpet, no usual parade of glitzy fashion or inane questions.
But amid the nominees’ video chatting in their award speeches and Kimmel and friends trying to make lemonade out of the lemons of
2020, there were some great moments. And quite a few bad ones:
Worst: Kimmel fiddles, the world burns
Despite the unprecedented nature of the telecast, the intense cultural upheaval of 2020 and the opportunity to do something new with the ceremony, Kimmel kicked off the night with an aggressive sameness, a monologue that cracked jokes about the pandemic and the 2020 election as if it was only the typical level of crisis plaguing the world. Cutting in scenes of a past Emmys audience laughing at his new monologue, Kimmel seemed to be in his own little universe, a comedian cracking jokes as the world burns about the pointless charade.
At one point there was literal fire when in a bit with Jennifer Aniston, he “sanitized” the winner’s envelope by lighting it on fire and asking Aniston to put it out, and the trash can fire proved a bit too strong for her fire extinguisher. A metaphor for something? Probably ...
Best: A ‘Schitt’s’ sweep
Every once in a while, the Emmy voters get it right. The final season of Pop TV’s delightful, life-affirming sitcom was overlooked for most of its run by the Television Academy.