- The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony will be held ‘virtually’ on September 20, 2020.
- Jimmy Kimmel will host the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards.
- The Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC.
The digital revolution has changed everything and nowhere is this more apparent than television broadcasting. The legacy broadcast networks tried for years to marginalize their cable TV counterparts until The Sopranos kicked in the door and kicked it hard. The Sopranos was the first cable TV series to be nominated for ‘Best Drama’ but even then the analog era power brokers tried to keep it at bay even though it was by far the best thing on television. It was first nominated in 1999 but lost to the ABC series The Practice. It was nominated again in 2000, 2001 and 2003 but lost each year to The West Wing which now looks as silly as Dances With Wolves beating out Goodfellas for the 1990 ‘Best Picture’ Oscar. It finally won in 2004 and established HBO as a force to be reckoned with and legitimized the cable TV industry as capable of producing quality programming.
The game has changed completely and the analog legacy networks are struggling to remain relevant. They’re now being inundated on two separate fronts–the ‘traditional’ cable networks and a new breed of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Only one of the ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’ nominees comes from one of the analog networks (NBC’s The Good Place). None of the ‘Outstanding Drama Series’ nominees are from the broadcast networks with streaming services dominating this category.
The broadcasting landscape has changed completely but as a result we’re in another ‘golden age’ of television. There’s never been a point in history where there were so many high quality programs available in just about every genre. With the end of Game of Thrones there may never be another ‘dominant’ series from a critical or commercial standpoint but the overall quality benchmark of the entire broadcast industry is much higher than it has ever been.
Here are the SPORTSINSIDER.COM odds on the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards Drama Series categories:
72ND PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS 2020 BETTING ODDS
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Succession -175 Ozark +500 Better Call Saul +700 Killing Eve +700 The Crown +1500 Stranger Things +1500 The Mandalorian +2500 The Handmaid's Tale +2500
OUTSTANDING DRAMA ACTRESS
Laura Linney/Ozark -125 Olivia Coleman/The Crown +350 Zendaya/Euphoria +500 Jennifer Aniston/The Morning Show +500 Sandra Oh/Killing Eve +1250 Jody Comer/Killing Eve +1250
OUTSTANDING DRAMA ACTOR
Brian Cox/Succession +150 Jeremy Strong/Succession +300 Jason Bateman/Ozark +450 Billy Porter/Pose +500 Sterling K. Brown/This Is Us +700 Steve Carell/The Morning Show +700
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Helena Bonham Carter/The Crown -135 Sarah Snook/Succession +500 Julia Garner/Ozark +750 Fiona Shaw/Killing Eve +750 Laura Dern/Big Little Lies +1000 Meryl Streep/Big Little Lies +1000 Thandie Newton/Westworld +2000 Samira Wiley/The Handmaid's Tale +2000
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR
Billy Crudup/The Morning Show +250 Kieran Culkin/Succession +350 Giancarlo Esposito/Better Call Saul +500 Matthew Macfadyen/Succession +500 Bradley Whitford/The Handmaid's Tale +750 Jeffrey Wright/Westworld +750 Kieran Culkin/Succession +1000 Mark Duplass/The Morning Show +1000
OUTSTANDING DRAMA WRITING
This Is Not For Tears/Succession -200 Aberfan/The Crown +600 Fire Pink/Ozark +600 Bagman/Better Call Saul +1000 Bad Choice Road/Better Call Saul +1000 All In/Ozark +1500 Boss Fight/Ozark +1500
OUTSTANDING DRAMA DIRECTING
This Is Not For Tears/Succession +275 Aberfan/The Crown +350 Hunting/Succession +500 Fire Pink/Ozark +500 The Interview/The Morning Show +500 Prisoners of War/Homeland +1000 Su Casa Es Mi Casa/Ozark +1000 Cri de Coeur/The Crown +1000
