Leslie Jones brought the fire early this morning as she announced the 2020 Emmy nominations live on Emmys.com. She, along with Laverne CoxJosh Gad, and Tatiana Maslany, read off the major categories and shared playful banter. 

Final round voting for the Emmys begins August 21, 2020 and continues through 10 p.m. PST on August 31.


The Emmy's are set to happen in September, with host Jimmy Kimmel and air on ABC on Sunday, September 20, 2020. While we don't know exactly how they will take place, we do know some form of the awards will air that Sunday. As of right now, it feels like Zoom or Skype will be heavily featured. 

It's hard to predict how ABC will format the show with Kimmel, but I have to think live feeds into celebrity homes seems the sanest. Maybe even FaceTiming for speeches? Or Zooming into a hotline to broadcast? 

Only time will tell. 

The 2020 Emmy Nominations 

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson, “Black-ish”
Don Cheadle, “Black Monday”
Ted Danson, “The Good Place”
Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”
Eugene Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”
Ramy Youssef, “Ramy”

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, “Black-ish”

Outstanding Variety Talk Series

“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” (Comedy Central)
“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” (TBS)
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC)
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (HBO)
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Bateman, “Ozark”
Brian Cox, “Succession”
Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us”
Steve Carrell “The Morning Show”
Jeremy Strong, “Succession”
Billy Porter, “Pose”

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”
Olivia Colman, “The Crown”
Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”
Laura Linney, “Ozark”
Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”
Zendaya, “Euphoria”

Outstanding Competition Program

“The Masked Singer” (Fox)
“Nailed It!” (Netflix)
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (VH1)
“Top Chef” (Bravo)
“The Voice” (NBC)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie

Jeremy Irons, “Watchmen”
Hugh Jackman, “Bad Education”
Paul Mescal, “Normal People”
Jeremy Pope, “Hollywood”
Mark Ruffalo, “I Know This Much Is True”

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie

Cate Blanchett, “Mrs. America”
Shira Haas, “Unorthodox”
Regina King, “Watchmen”
Octavia Spencer, “Self-Made”
Kerry Washington, “Little Fires Everywhere”

Outstanding Limited Series

“Watchmen” (HBO)
“Mrs. America” (FX on Hulu)
“Unbelievable” (Netflix)
“Unorthodox” (Netflix)
“Little Fires Everywhere” (Hulu)

Outstanding Comedy Series

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO)
“The Good Place” (NBC)
“Dead to Me” (Netflix)
“Insecure” (HBO)
“The Kominsky Method” (Netflix)
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime Video)
“Schitt’s Creek” (Pop TV)
“What We Do in the Shadows” (FX)

Outstanding Drama Series

“Better Call Saul” (AMC)
“The Crown” (Netflix)
“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
“Killing Eve” (BBC America)
“The Mandalorian” (Disney+)
“Ozark” (Netflix)
“Stranger Things” (Netflix)
“Succession” (HBO)

The complete list of nominations can be found here.

While those are the major categories, the finer details show Netflix's dominance. It picked up 160 nominations across the board, with HBO coming in a distant second place with 107. Ozark, The Crown, Stranger Things, and Dead to Me all helped the streamer assert dominance over the field. 

Still, the show of the year was Watchmen, which scored the most nominations overall with 26 for the graphic novel adaptation.

Netflix’s Ozark and HBO’s Succession both scored 18 nominations.

Apple TV+ entered its first Emmys race with 18 awards, largely for The Morning Show, and Disney+ scored 19 nominations - thanks mostly to The Mandalorian

Hulu added 26 noms this year, Amazon gathered 30, largely helped by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and FX took 33. Another premium network, Showtime, was down to only 4 noms. They received 18 last year. 

What about broadcast TV? All of the broadcast together scored a new low of 121 nominationscompared to 147 last year.

We continue to see streaming and premium services push peak TV. Broadcast will slip until they learn to shake things up. 

Source: Emmys