Emmys: 20 things to be on the lookout for this season
Now that we’ve all had some time to recover from the Oscars (yay Parasite!) we turn our focus to what will happen on television’s big night – the Primetime Emmys. Below are 20 things we should be on the lookout for….
This Is Us is it in big trouble? After winning SAG Award for Best Drama TV Ensemble two years in a row (2018-2019) the series was snubbed. This could prove disastrous for their chances of remaining in the Emmy race for Best Drama Series.
The Red Emmys – With Game of Thrones in TV heaven and Bodyguard not airing a second season there’s an open spot (last year a tie resulted in eight series being nominated). Trying to join Succession, Ozark, Killing Eve, Better Call Saul, Pose and This Is Us are the series that took the year off: The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale, Westworld and Stranger Things. Not to mention Amazon’s Hunters and crossing over from the Limited Series category – Big Little Lies. The Drama Series race this year will be as bloody as the Red Wedding!
Rami Malek won Best Drama Actor for the first season (2016) of Mr. Robot and then was dropped from the category for seasons two and three. Now an Oscar winner ,will Malek earn one last nomination before he leaves television for the foreseeable future?
Ramy Youssef – Can he parlay his surprise Golden Globe win for Best Comedy Actor for his self-named series Ramy into an Emmy nomination?
Is Succession, going to succeed Game of Thrones in becoming HBO’s premier drama?
Annie Murphy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara and Dan Levy of SCHITT’S CREEK (PopTV)
Schitt’s Creek – will the cult series final season be this year’s Fleabag in terms of Emmy wins?
Netflix – is this the year the streamer finally wins a Series award?
Apple+ will try and make their presence known at this year’s Emmys in a big way. The new kid on the blocks best chance is with The Morning Show trying to crack the overcrowded Best Drama Series category. The series star, Jennifer Aniston does appear safe for a Best Drama Actress nomination after her Screen Actors Guild win.
Fargo – can the fourth season finally win an Emmy for acting? FX’s Fargo has amassed 11 acting nominations for its first three seasons without a win. Will Season Four – starring Chris Rock, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Whishaw, Jack Huston, Uzo Aduba and Jessie Buckley to name a few – break the streak or fall victim to the curse?
For the past three Emmys there’s been only one way to win on in either Drama or Comedy races the series has to be nominated. With the exceptions of Best Prosthetic Makeup and Best Comedy Stunt NO Series OR performer won an Emmy from a Drama or Comedy that wasn’t nominated for Series.
Sandra Oh is in a lot of trouble. Oh won a Golden Globe and SAG Award for the first season of Killing Eve at the beginning of 2019. But then her costar, Jodie Comer upset her at the Emmys and then replaced her at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, earning nominations for the second season.
The Supporting Actress races frontrunners: Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) will try and make it a rare three in a row in the Best Comedy Supporting Actress Race. Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown) will try and win her first major acting award in America in the Best Drama Supporting Actress category. Toni Collette (Unbelievable) will try and add a second Emmy to her trophy case for Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actress. What makes them the early frontrunners – each received a SAG Award nomination.
Best Drama Actor – define first season. Is it your first season nominated (Brian Cox or Jeremy Strong, Succession)? Does it count as a first season if the show’s recast (Tobias Menzies, The Crown)? Or is it the traditional first season of a television series (Al Pacino, Hunters)?
Modern Family – Worst-case scenario the final season completely snubbed. Bu the best-case scenario might be two: Best Supporting Actor for Ty Burrell and Best Comedy Writing nomination for the finale.
Why are there only five nominees for Best Limited Series? FX, Netflix, and HBO each will try to get multiple series’ nominations. And that was before HBO’s Watchmen was classified as a Limited Series. That’s not including the series from Showtime, Hulu or NatGeo that will also try and crack the top five.
The Aussies are coming! Cate Blanchett (Mrs. America), Russell Crowe (The Loudest Voice), Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies and The Undoing) and Ben Mendelsohn (The Undoing) will all compete in various acting categories and could turn the Emmys into an Aussie love fest.
Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin in GENIUS: ARETHA FRANKLIN (National Geographic/Richard DuCree)
Lose the Oscar win the Emmy – Al Pacino (Hunters) and Cynthia Erivo (The Outsider and Genius: Aretha Franklin) are hoping television big night will go better than films.
At long last? Hugh Laurie (Avenue 5), Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Donald Sutherland (The Undoing) – can any of these past multiple Emmy nominees finally win their long sought after trophy?
Can anyone beat Eddie Murphy for Best Comedy Guest Actor (Saturday Night Live). Murphy’s been out front for a long time. But can the polarizing performer make it to the winner’s circle? We also all thought Adam Sandler had this in the bag last year.
Who runs TV? Possibly, Reese Witherspoon—With Big Little Lies (HBO), The Morning Show (Apple+) and Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu). Witherspoon has the opportunity to be responsible for more nominations than some networks will receive.
- From Emmy snubbed to Golden Globe-d, here’s who could get an awards do-over - December 7, 2020
- Dan Levy (‘Schitt’s Creek’) may be on the way to a happy ending and make Emmy history - August 31, 2020
- Emmy Predictions: What‘s going to happen in the race for Lead Actor in a Drama Series? - August 11, 2020
2025 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE, DOCUMENTARY FEATURE and INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM (December) 
2025 Oscar Predictions: FILM EDITING, CINEMATOGRAPHY, COSTUME DESIGN, PRODUCTION DESIGN (December) 
2025 Oscar Predictions: MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING, ORIGINAL SCORE, ORIGINAL SONG, SOUND, VISUAL EFFECTS (December) 
Interview: Director Robert Eggers (‘Nosferatu’) on the Consequences of Temptation, Training Hundreds of Rats, and Playing with Vampire Lore