#EmmysSoWhite? Not this year. On Tuesday morning, the Television Academy announced its nominations for the 2020 Emmys, delivering what’s reportedly their most diverse slate in history. As Variety points out, out of the 102 acting nominees this year, 35 of those slots went to Black performers, accounting for 34.3% of the total slate. For context, that’s an increase from the previous high of 27.7% in 2018, and especially last year’s 19.8%. It’s a refreshing change that aligns with the vision of Television Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma, who led off this morning’s event by saying, “2020 isn’t just about the global health crisis. This year we are also bearing witness to one of the greatest fights for social justice in history, and it is our duty to use this medium for change.” However,...
This morning, though it still feels weird to say it, the 2020 Emmy nominees were announced. For our purposes, there were quite a few familiar names on that list. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were nominated for Outstanding Music Composition For a Limited Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score) and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for their work on the HBO series The Watchmen. Also recognized in the Original Music and Lyrics category are the Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo for The Black Godfather, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith for This Is Us, and Ingrid Michaelson for Little Fires Everywhere. The Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score) category has some heavy comp...
The nominations for the 2020 Emmy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning (July 28) by former Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones, who was joined, virtually, by Laverne Cox, Josh Gad and Tatiana Maslany. This year’s ceremony will be reimagined as a socially distanced event due to the production restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. HBO’s dystopian graphic novel adaptation Watchmen topped all nominees with 26 nods, followed by Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (20), Netflix’s Ozark (18) and HBO’s Succession (18), while Disney+ got into the game in its first year with the Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian tying Saturday Night Live and the final season of Schitt’s Creek with 15 each. Netflix set a record with the mos...
The trend at award shows these days as far as the number of nominees in marquee categories is go big or go home. The Emmy Awards bucked 60 years of tradition when they announced the nominees for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on July 16, 2009. They unveiled seven nominees for each of what are widely seen as their top awards—outstanding comedy series and outstanding drama series. They had usually had five nominees in each of these categories. Six and a half months later, on Feb. 2, 2010, the Oscars took it even further when they announced the nominees for the 82nd annual Academy Awards. They unveiled 10 nominees for their flagship award, best picture, up from the usual five. They announced 10 nominees the following year as well. The Tony Awards have a much smaller field of potential nominee...
Both the Grammy and Emmy sites urged visitors to support Color of Change and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The lead stories at the sites tied to the Grammy Awards and the Emmy Awards on Tuesday (June 2) didn’t have anything to with awards or nominations, but with social justice. Visitors to www.Grammy.com were greeted with this announcement, set against a stark black background: “The Recording Academy stands with our members, colleagues, creators and the entire music community as we observe ‘Black Out Tuesday’ on June 2. We will use this day to reflect, as we know we can all be better…do better. “We recognize and embrace the responsibility that we all have in the fight against racial injustice. The Academy will join our colleagues in the music industry t...