Emmy Awards 2020: Date, Nominations, Predictions And How To Watch

Television's biggest night is just around the corner, but this year, it will definitely look a little different.

The Primetime Emmy Awards, which celebrate excellence in television throughout the past year, are soldiering on in 2020 despite the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which shut down large swathes of the globe in March. As countries begin to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the initial spread of this devastating novel coronavirus, much of the United States — including Los Angeles, the city in which the Emmys ceremony is normally held — is still largely under lockdown. Despite all of that, the Television Academy has figured out a way to make the Emmys happen after all.

Here's everything you need to know about the 2020 Emmys — from when it will air to who will host this year's proceedings to what the show will look like during the age of COVID-19, where large indoor gatherings are all but impossible. If you're a television fan, it's definitely exciting that the Emmys have found a way to keep the festivities going in 2020, so we've also got to scoop on how to (remotely) join them for TV's most important evening.

The Emmys typically air in mid to late September, and despite how different this year has been, the 2020 Emmys are sticking to this particular tradition. The Emmys will air on ABC on Sunday, September 20 at 8 PM EST (5 PM on the West Coast), and the ceremony is set to last three hours. ABC's own late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has been tapped to host the ceremony for a third time, after his well-received hosting stints in 2012 and 2016. Kimmel returns after a hostless 2019 ceremony — an experiment that provided middling results — and will hold the ceremony solo in the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with nominees and presenters streaming in over live feeds.

As usual, the Primetime Emmys will be the final night after five nights of the Creative Arts Emmys, which gives out awards in a wide variety of categories from scripted shows to reality television, and which will be hosted by Nailed It! fixture Nicole Byer.

If you have any sort of local streaming access or even a cable subscription, you can simply watch the Emmys through your local ABC affiliate, or you can catch the highlights online the next morning after the winners have been announced. There's also a ton of pre- and post-Emmys coverage, including after-party on E! as well as a postmortem on IMDbLive on Monday, September 21 at 2 PM EST, which will air on IMDb.com, Twitter, and Twitch.

On July 28, 2020, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the full line-up of nominees for the upcoming Emmys ceremony. Netflix dominated the pack with a staggering 160 nominations across various programs — from the British royal family drama The Crown to the grippy crime-centric series Ozark to Stranger Things, Big Mouth, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, GLOW, and Orange Is the New Black. HBO also cleaned up nicely, specifically with its graphic-novel-based seriesWatchmen, which pulled in an astounding 26 nominations. 

Find the complete list of 2020 Emmy nominees below.

Drama Series

Better Call Saul
The Crown
The Handmaid's Tale
Killing Eve
The Mandalorian
Ozark
Stranger Things
Succession

Actor in a Drama Series

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

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

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

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

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

Limited Series

Little Fires Everywhere
Mrs. America
Unbelievable
Unorthodox
Watchmen

Television Movie

American Son
Bad Education
Dolly Parton's Heartstrings: These Old Bones
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend

Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

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

Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America
Shira Haas, Unorthodox
Regina King, Watchmen
Octavia Spencer, Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of C.J. Walker
Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere

Variety Sketch Series

A Black Lady Sketch Show
Drunk History
Saturday Night Live

Variety Talk Series

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul
Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid's Tale
Billy Crudup, The Morning Show
Mark Duplass, The Morning Show
Nicholas Braun, Succession
Kieran Culkin, Succession
Matthew MacFadyen, Succession
Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Meryl Streep, Big Little Lies
Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown
Samira Wiley, The Handmaid's Tale
Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve
Julia Garner, Ozark
Sarah Snook, Succession
Thandie Newton, Westworld

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
William Jackson Harper, The Good Place
Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method
Sterling K. Brown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Mahershala Ali, Ramy
Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live
Dan Levy, Schitt's Creek

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Betty Gilpin, GLOW
D'Arcy Carden, The Good Place
Yvonne Orji, Insecure
Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live
Cecily Strong, Saturday Night Live
Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek

Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Dylan McDermott, Hollywood
Jim Parsons, Hollywood
Titus Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen
Jovan Adepo, Watchmen
Louis Gossett Jr., Watchmen

Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Holland Taylor, Hollywood
Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America
Margo Martindale, Mrs. America
Tracey Ullman, Mrs. America
Toni Collette, Unbelievable
Jean Smart, Watchmen

Guest Actor in a Drama Series

Andrew Scott, Black Mirror
Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian
Martin Short, The Morning Show
Jason Bateman, The Outsider
James Cromwell, Succession
Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us

Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid's Tale
Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away with Murder
Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black
Harriet Walter, Succession
Cherry Jones, The Handmaid's Tale
Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us

Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Dev Patel, Modern Love
Adam Driver, Saturday Night Live
Eddie Murphy, Saturday Night Live
Brad Pitt, Saturday Night Live

Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

Angela Bassett, A Black Lady Sketch Show
Maya Rudolph, The Good Place
Wanda Sykes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Bette Midler, The Politician
Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Saturday Night Live

Animated Series

Big Mouth
Bob's Burgers
BoJack Horseman
Rick and Morty
The Simpsons

Reality/Competition Series

The Masked Singer
Nailed It!
RuPaul's Drag Race
Top Chef
The Voice

Structured Reality Series

Antiques Roadshow
Love Is Blind
Queer Eye
Shark Tank
A Very Brady Renovation

Unstructured Reality Series

Amy Schumer Learns to Cook: Lunch Break and Pasta Night
Cheer
Kevin Hart: Don't F**k This Up
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked
We're Here

As for who will take home the night's biggest prizes at the Emmy Awards, that's still anybody's guess. After the Emmy nominations were announced, fans and critics took to the Internet to discuss some of this year's pleasant surprises and shocking snubs.

As far as the surprises go, fans of popular feel-good comedies The Good Place and Schitt's Creek — both of which aired phenomenal final seasons in 2020 — made their way into Outstanding Comedy Series, along with FX's buzzy vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows, earning its first-ever nomination in the category for its second season. Disney+'s flagship Star Wars series The Mandalorian managed to crack Outstanding Drama Series after just one short season, while HBO hits like Watchmen and Succession helped the premium cable network earn a whopping 107 nominations.

Meanwhile, Better Call Saul fans were stunned when the beloved FX series managed to score a nod for Outstanding Drama Series but no nominations for its star performers Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn. Though pretty much everybody from The Good Place was nominated for their performances, star Kristen Bell was left out of the running for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Fellow multi-talented bubbly blonde Reese Witherspoon, who had three chances for a nomination — between Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, and The Morning Show — came up empty-handed.

If you can't wait to see who takes home the gold on Emmy night, you don't have to wait long. The 2020 Emmy Awards will air on ABC on Sunday, September 20 at 8 PM EST.