This year’s Emmy Awards are strikingly unusual — and not only for the obvious reasons. It’s true that the pandemic has disrupted the traditional process by which the television industry celebrates its accomplishments, and Sunday night, when the awards ceremony takes place, is certainly bound to look and feel different — the crowdless auditorium, the vicarious glamour of the celebrity living room, the low-tech gauze of the web-cam, all now familiar trappings of broadcast entertainment in the age of COVID-19.
But the Emmys are strange this year as well for the kinds of television they are celebrating. Because if this is the age of COVID, it’s also evidently the age of streaming.
More than half of this year’s Emmy nominees are available on streaming services. These not only include popular blockbusters from mainstays such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, whose awards season bona fides have at last been established at great cost and after much effort. The 2020 Emmys are also rife with contenders from the newcomers: Disney+, Apple TV+. There are even nominations for shows on Quibi — shows virtually no one has even seen .
Of course, Canada being somewhat behind the technological trends, our only contribution to Emmy night comes not from a streaming service but from our national broadcaster. But it is a serious contribution: Schitt’s Creek has a staggering 15 nominations, making it this country’s most-decorated TV export by a country kilometre. If the recently ended comedy comes away with the bulk of the awards it’s been tipped for, it will be a victory for Canada and for Canadian television more broadly. But it will also be a victory for network TV: in the face of streaming supremacy, here was one hit that was beamed into homes the old-fashioned way.
Here are some of our predictions for Sunday night:
Outstanding Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dead To Me
The Good Place
Insecure
The Kominsky Method
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Schitt’s Creek
What We Do in the Shadows
This is typical of the confusion aroused by the Emmys generally: heavy-duty, hour-long HBO comedies must compete against half-hour network sitcoms, although the two are impossible to accurately compare. The most recent season of Larry David’s perfect Curb Your Enthusiasm was one of the highlights of the year in TV comedy, but of course Schitt’s Creek , beloved and (even more crucially) finished, is all but guaranteed the salutary crown.
Prediction: Schitt’s Creek
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Outstanding Drama Series
Better Call Saul
The Crown
The Handmaid’s Tale
Killing Eve
The Mandalorian
Ozark
Stranger Things
Succession
An always crowded category, Outstanding Drama seems more loaded than ever this year, as some of the biggest runaway hits of the Netflix age ( Stranger Things , Ozark ) must contend with both HBO’s most acclaimed drama since Deadwood (the brilliant Succession ) and the much-adored Baby Yoda ( The Mandalorian ). I have a soft-spot for the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul , which started as an oddball novelty but evolved into an even better series than its predecessor. At this point, though, it’s anyone’s game.
Prediction: Better Call Saul
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Outstanding Limited Series
Little Fires Everywhere
Mrs. America
Unbelievable
Unorthodox
Watchmen
The idea of the “Limited Series” has changed considerably over the years, and now these one off special events are trendier than ever. It’s for that reason, too, that the quality of such series has risen tremendously, making it possible for an ambitious sequel to a comic book (HBO’s Watchmen ) to emerge as the most critically acclaimed new show of the year. It’s a cinch for the award in a tough category.
Prediction: Watchmen
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Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy
Anthony Anderson, Blackish
Don Cheadle, Black Monday
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method
Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek
Ramy Youssef, Ramy
The already adored career comedian concludes the final season of his hugely celebrated network sitcom: it’s a can’t-lose scenario for Eugene.
Prediction: Eugene Levy
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Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me
Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek
Issa Rae, Insecure
Tracee Ellis Ross, Blackish
And if it’s a sure thing for Eugune, well… another Canadian victory is assured.
Prediction: Catherine O’Hara
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
