2021 American television programming awards
The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2020, until May 31, 2021, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences. The award ceremony was held live on September 19, 2021, at the Event Deck at L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles, California, and was preceded by the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 11 and 12. During the ceremony, Emmy Awards were handed out in 27 different categories. The ceremony was produced by Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart, directed by Hamish Hamilton, and broadcast in the United States by CBS and Paramount+. Cedric the Entertainer served as host for the event.
At the main ceremony, "The Crown" became the first drama series to sweep all the major categories, winning all seven awards including Outstanding Drama Series. "Ted Lasso" led all comedies with four wins, including Outstanding Comedy Series, while "Hacks" won three awards. "Mare of Easttown" also won three awards, leading all limited series, but Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series went to "The Queen's Gambit". Other winning programs include "Halston", "Hamilton", "I May Destroy You", "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver", "RuPaul's Drag Race", "Saturday Night Live", and "Stephen Colbert's Election Night 2020". Including Creative Arts Emmys, "The Crown" and "The Queen's Gambit" led all programs with 11 wins each; Netflix led all networks and platforms with 44 total wins.
Winners and nominees.
The nominations for the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on July 13, 2021, by Ron and Jasmine Cephas Jones via a virtual event. Including nominations at the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, "The Crown" and "The Mandalorian" tied for the most nominations, with 24 each. HBO and HBO Max received a combined 130 nominations, making them the most-nominated network, ahead of Netflix by only one nomination. "Ted Lasso" became the most-nominated first-year comedy series in the awards' history with 20 nominations; the Apple TV+ sports comedy surpassed the record held by the Fox musical comedy-drama "Glee", which received 19 nominations in 2010. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez of the series "Pose" became the first transgender person to be nominated for a major acting Emmy Award. Additionally, 43 non-Anglo actors received nominations for acting, besting the previous record of 36.
The winners were announced on September 19, following the Creative Arts Emmys on September 11 and 12. "The Crown" and "The Queen's Gambit" led all series with 11 wins each. The two shows gave Netflix its first series wins after 30 previous nominations for comedy, drama, and limited series dating back to 2013. "The Crown" won all seven drama categories at the main ceremony, becoming the first show to sweep the major drama categories. It also became just the third show to complete a sweep of the major categories, following "Angels in America" as a limited series in 2004 and "Schitt's Creek" as a comedy in 2020. "The Queen's Gambit" became the first web series to win Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Netflix led all platforms with 44 wins, marking the first time it won more awards than any other network or platform and tying the record set by CBS in 1974 for the most wins by a network in a year. The fourth season of "The Handmaid's Tale" was nominated for 21 awards but did not win any, breaking "Mad Men"'s record of 17 nomination losses in 2012 for the largest "shutout" in Emmys history.
For individual achievements, RuPaul became the most-awarded black individual in Emmys history with his win as a producer of "RuPaul's Drag Race" for Outstanding Competition Program. Michaela Coel became the first black woman to win for limited series writing for "I May Destroy You". Jean Smart became the second woman to win Emmys for lead, supporting, and guest acting in comedies, after Betty White. Directing wins for Lucia Aniello and Jessica Hobbs marked the first time women won Emmys for comedy and drama directing in the same year.
While a record was set for diverse nominations and the ceremony featured many presenters of color, white individuals won all 12 major acting trophies. This led to the hashtag #EmmysSoWhite trending on Twitter, echoing #OscarsSoWhite from the 87th Academy Awards in 2015. For comparison, the previous year saw four black winners in the acting categories. In total, only three individuals of color spoke when accepting awards – RuPaul, Coel, and Debbie Allen – though there were other winners of color on producing and writing teams. The Creative Arts Emmys were more diverse, with three of the four guest acting winners being black and many people of color winning in technical categories, though those awards are considered less notable.
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡). For simplicity, producers who received nominations for program awards, as well as nominated writers for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, have been omitted.
Governors Award.
The Governors Award was presented to Debbie Allen "in recognition of her numerous contributions to the television medium through multiple creative forms and her philanthropic endeavors around the world".
Nominations and wins by program.
For the purposes of the lists below, "major" constitutes the categories listed above (program, acting, directing, and writing), while "total" includes the categories presented at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
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Nominations and wins by network.
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Presenters.
The awards were presented by the following people:
Ceremony information.
On March 2, 2021, the Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences, also known as the Television Academy, announced that the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards would be held on September 19. CBS broadcast the ceremony as part of a rotating deal among the "Big Four" networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) signed in 2018. Additionally, it was announced that the ceremony would be available live and on-demand via ViacomCBS's streaming service Paramount+. Executive producers Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart returned after working on the previous year's ceremony, with Done and Dusted and Hudlin Entertainment producing. Hamish Hamilton also returned as director from the previous year. On July 12, Cedric the Entertainer was announced as the ceremony's host. Reggie Watts served as the DJ for the ceremony, and MC Lyte was the show's announcer.
In an interview with "Variety", Hudlin and Stewart explained that they aimed to make the ceremony a "celebration" after the events of the previous year. They also sought to create a "party environment" for the audience and viewers at home. Cedric voiced similar thoughts, remarking that "television got us through this last year" and seeking to honor that. The usual theater seating was not included; instead, nominees were seated at tables with food and drink available. According to Hudlin, he and Stewart had wanted to try such a setup for a while, and the ceremony offered a great opportunity for them to try it. For nominees who could not attend in person for logistical reasons or due to health concerns, remote sites were set up; for instance, the cast and crew members of "The Crown" attended together from a remote site in London.
Effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the previous ceremony had been held as a virtual event with no in-person festivities. Jimmy Kimmel hosted the ceremony from Staples Center with no audience, while all nominees appeared remotely via video link. Initially, the Television Academy planned to return to a modified in-person ceremony at the Microsoft Theater. However, due to concerns over SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant and increasing infections in California, it was announced on August 10 that the Primetime Emmy Awards and Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards would be relocated to another L.A. Live venue, the indoor-outdoor Event Deck, and have a further reduction in attendance. The Event Deck had been used before as the site for the ceremony's Governors Ball afterparty, which was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. Attendees were asked to wear masks when not on camera and during commercial breaks.
When announcing the move to the Event Deck, the Television Academy explained that the change would allow the ceremony to "utilize an indoor/outdoor setting and more socially-distanced audience seating". However, presenter Seth Rogen criticized the tent-based setup during the ceremony, remarking, "What are we doing? They said this was outdoors. It is not. They lied to us". The comments, which were delivered off-script and partially tongue-in-cheek, led to criticism of the event on social media and reportedly frustrated producers Stewart and Hudlin. Cedric and Watts explained later in the ceremony the procedures that had been put in place to ensure a safe event. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also clarified that the ceremony was fully compliant with COVID-19 regulations for film, television, and music productions, which included proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the event.
Category and rule changes.
In December 2020, the Television Academy announced several rule changes for the 2021 ceremony, including merging the Outstanding Variety Talk Series and Outstanding Variety Sketch Series categories after previously splitting them in 2015. However, this decision was reversed in February 2021. Another rule change clarified that anthology series would compete in the limited series categories, which were renamed accordingly. In June, it was announced that acting nominees and winners could request that the gender-neutral term "performer" be used instead of "actor" or "actress" on their certificates and statuettes.
After trimming the number of categories at the main ceremony from 27 in 2019 to 23 in 2020, the Television Academy announced in July that the awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series and Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) would be moved to the main ceremony. In August, the awards for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series and Outstanding Variety Special (Live) were also added to the main ceremony. Other categories that had been presented at the main ceremony in previous years, such as Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, were kept at the Creative Arts ceremony.
Critical reviews and viewership.
The broadcast generally received mixed to negative reviews. Mike Hale of "The New York Times" remarked that the ceremony had "a certain level of spirit in the room — you got the feeling people were having a good time... But it was an insular jollity, one that didn't really come through the screen". He also criticized the scripted portions and noted that the best parts were "more off the cuff". IndieWire's Ben Travers noted that the awards were "a traditional telecast" befitting CBS's light, safe programming and found that it lacked a "special sauce ... to distinguish it for anything "good"". He praised the stars of the evening but found the comedy and presentation poor, and he found the lack of diversity among the winners disappointing. "Entertainment Weekly"'s Kristen Baldwin found that most of the jokes "didn't just fall flat — they cratered", while Rob Sheffield from "Rolling Stone" called it "one long coffin flop" that "decided to remind everyone what sucked about [award ceremonies]".
Some critics reviewed the broadcast more positively. Sonia Saraiya of "Vanity Fair" remarked that she generally enjoyed the ceremony and called it "a suave, sleek event", though she added that the lack of diversity among winners despite the diverse nominees and attendees "suggested that the Television Academy wants to be something different, but is still figuring out how". Robert Lloyd from the "Los Angeles Times" found the ceremony "fun, if nerve-racking" given the apparent disregard for COVID-19 protocols, singling out the pacing and energy for praise; he also applauded the diversity of the presenters. Several moments also received praise even from negative reviews, such as Michaela Coel's acceptance speech and Conan O'Brien "injecting a little anarchy into the proceedings" from the audience.
The ceremony was viewed by 7.83 million people in the United States, representing a 23% increase over the previous year's ceremony, which was the least-viewed in Emmys history. It also achieved a 1.81 rating among adults ages 18–49, up from the previous year's 1.3 rating. The ratings figures only include those who watched the telecast on CBS, and not those who streamed it on Paramount+. Viewership numbers were the best since the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2018, and the ceremony snapped a six-year streak of record-low viewership. Several publications remarked that the improved ratings were likely