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The ceremony, which was forced to make major
changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, aired on ABC without
the typical celebrity audience or red carpet. Just a few live
presenters, including Jennifer Aniston and an alpaca, appeared
in the same space as Kimmel.
Instead, nominees were streamed from inside their homes with
friends and family members, or at small gatherings, seated a
safe distance apart from their castmates.
"You know how hard it is to try to get your parents to FaceTime?"
Kimmel joked as he kicked off the show against a backdrop
showing livestreams from the 100 award nominees. "Multiply that
by a lot."
As Kimmel cracked jokes during his opening monologue, cameras
cut to scenes of celebrities laughing in the audience during
previous Emmy ceremonies.
"Of course we don't have an audience," Kimmel said, contrasting
the stripped-down Emmy's to the in-person "Make America Great
Again" campaign events of President Donald Trump. "This isn't a
MAGA rally, it's the Emmys."
The cameras showed Kimmel inside an empty Staples Center arena
with a few cardboard cutouts of TV stars, similar to the ones
being used to fill empty seats at Major League Baseball games.
With live feeds directly to the nominees, presenters in
black-tuxedo hazmat suits handed the awards to the winners. The
show also used prerecorded profiles of essential workers,
including a high school teacher and a nurse, to present several
awards.
Some of the nominees donned formal attire, including the cast of
the winning comedy series "Schitt's Creek," who appeared
together at an event space in Toronto. Tables were spaced apart,
and many of the gathering's attendees wore black masks.
Other nominees were casually lounging at home, including actress
Regina King, who won the Emmy for best actress in a limited
series for her role in HBO's "Watchmen."
"This is so freaking weird," King said as she accepted her award
sitting in an armchair while wearing a pink suit and a black
T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Breonna Taylor, a Black
woman killed by police in her Louisville, Kentucky, home earlier
this year.
In an interview after winning her award, King said she had been
more nervous accepting the award at home.
"I like the real awards better," King said. "Not that these are
fake; I don't know what to call it."
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; additional reporting by Lisa
Richwine and Jill Serjeant; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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