Adolescence, The White Lotus, Severance and The Penguin are a few of the TV shows that will battle it out later at the Emmys, the television industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony.
Owen Cooper, the 15-year-old British star of Adolescence, Netflix’s series about a teenager accused of murdering a classmate, could become the youngest male actor ever to win an Emmy.
Elsewhere, a campaign led by US chat show hosts following the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert could see the programme win outstanding talk series for the first time.
The ceremony will take place on Sunday evening at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Studio, Andor, Hacks, Slow Horses, The Bear, Nobody Wants This and The Last of Us are among the other shows competing for the top prizes.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of TV’s biggest night:
Who is hosting the Emmys?
US comedian Nate Bargatze is this year’s Emmys host.
He may not be a household name in the UK, but Bargatze is well known to American viewers and he sold more tickets to his shows than any other stand-up in the US last year.
As well as his own TV stand-up specials, Bargatze has appeared on a string of late-night talk shows including Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon, as well as variety show Saturday Night Live.
The 46-year-old is unlikely to go the Ricky Gervais route with a controversial opening monologue. He is known as a more family-friendly comedian who often uses observational humour.
Bargatze has said it is a “huge honour” to be hosting the event, and he has some interesting rules too. He plans to tell nominees that he will donate $100,000 to charity on the night, but the donation will decrease for every acceptance speech that goes over the time limit.
“So is thanking your second manager worth taking food from a child?” he asked. “I don’t think so, but we’ll see what Hollywood thinks.”
Which TV shows are nominated?
The Emmys split their nominations into three categories: comedy, drama and limited series.
Outstanding drama is traditionally seen as the most prestigious award of the night, and the field is wide open this year in the absence of last year’s winner Shogun, which has not yet started production on its next season.
Instead, this year’s contenders include wealth satire The White Lotus, Star Wars spin-off Andor, dystopian drama Paradise and sci-fi thriller Severance.
They are joined in the category by video game adaptation The Last of Us, medical series The Pitt, espionage drama Slow Horses and political thriller The Diplomat.
The comedy categories see two former winners compete to take the title again – kitchen drama The Bear and entertainment satire Hacks.
They face competition from the school-based Abbott Elementary, romantic comedy Nobody Wants This, and crime mystery Only Murders in the Building.
The category is completed by vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, therapist comedy Shrinking and Hollywood satire The Studio.
Meanwhile, the limited and anthology series category is led by Adolescence, a show which enjoyed as many headlines for its one-take shooting style as it did for its exploration of the impact of smartphones’ on teenagers.
It faces competition from the dystopian Black Mirror, Batman spin-off The Penguin, erotic cancer comedy Dying for Sex, and true-crime adaptation Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Record breakers and controversies
At 15, Cooper would not be the youngest winner for acting in Emmys history. That record is held by Roxana Zal who was 14 when she won in 1984 for her role in TV movie Something About Amelia.
Other notable teenage winners over the years include Kristy McNichol and Scott Jacoby, while the list of youngest nominees includes Frankie Muniz, Claire Danes, Millie Bobby Brown and Keshia Knight Pulliam, who was just six when she was nominated for The Cosby Show.
But Cooper would be the youngest ever winner in his category – best supporting actor in a limited series – as well as the youngest male winner overall in any acting category.
Other supporting actors and actresses nominated at the Emmys this year include Aimee Lou Wood, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Catherine O’Hara, Sam Rockwell, Colman Domingo, Harrison Ford, Javier Bardem and Erin Doherty.
In the lead categories, nominees include Cate Blanchett, Jake Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Ayo Edebiri, Jean Smart, Kathy Bates, Jeremy Allen White, Bella Ramsey, Gary Oldman, Pedro Pascal, Michelle Williams and Stephen Graham.
There is also a lot of interest in the variety talk series category this year, after a turbulent year for the late-night circuit.
CBS announced in July that it would be cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which he has hosted since 2015.
The network said it was a financial decision, but there was surprise in the industry given its relative popularity, and some suggested political pressure might have played a role in its cancellation.
Other talk show hosts, including some of Colbert’s fellow nominees, have publicly supported him by saying they will be voting for him at the Emmys this year, and have encouraged others to do the same.
A billboard ad in West Hollywood taken out last month by Jimmy Kimmel, one of Colbert’s rivals in the category, saw the talk show host declare: “I’m voting for Stephen.”
The Late Show already won its first Emmy last week, when it won a directing prize at the Creative Arts Emmys, a separate ceremony which precedes the main event.
How to watch the Emmy Awards
The ceremony will begin at 17:00 PT / 20:00 ET on Sunday, or 01:00 BST on Monday for UK viewers.
US viewers can watch it live on CBS or on streaming service Paramount+.
In the UK, it will start at 01:00 BST on Monday morning, but no British broadcaster is scheduled to show it live.
However, there will be live coverage on the BBC News website throughout the red carpet and ceremony.
As the Emmys have so many categories, many of the prizes have already been awarded, leaving only the most high-profile categories for Sunday night.
The other winners were announced over two nights at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys. You can find out who won here (night one) and here (night two).
Read more about the nominated shows:
