Saturday Night Live veteran Kenan Thompson, himself a past Emmy winner, will make his debut as host. PHOTO AFP
Will “Squid Game” make history? Or will HBO powerhouse “Succession” swipe the best drama statuette again at television’s equivalent of the Oscars?
And will Hulu break through on a wider scale?
Here are five things to know about the 74th Emmy Awards, which take place on Monday night in Los Angeles.
– Is Hollywood ready to crown K-drama? –
K-pop sensation BTS are so beloved that news of the boy band taking a break sparked a global meltdown on social media. “Parasite” broke all the rules on its path to Oscars glory in 2020. Is Hollywood now ready to honor a television series in Korean?
“Squid Game” — the blockbuster Netflix series about down-and-out people competing in children’s games to the death for money — became a global phenomenon upon its launch just about a year ago.
Now it could win the Emmy for best drama, in what would be a first for a non-English-language series. It is already a trailblazer just for earning a nomination in the category, one of 14 overall.
The series has already tasted Emmys victory, with Lee Yoo-mi taking the prize for best guest actress in a drama at the Creative Emmys, the pre-gala event at which many statuettes are awarded in minor categories.
Lee plays Ji-yeong, one of the 456 desperate competitors hoping to win cash in the brutal contest.
– Double nominations –
A host of performers are up for multiple awards on Monday, many of them in both acting and off-camera categories.
Julia Garner (“Ozark” and “Inventing Anna”) and Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria” and “The White Lotus”) are among those nominated for multiple acting roles, with Garner tipped to win the head-to-head battle for best supporting actress.
Best comedy actor nominee Bill Hader (“Barry”) is also nominated for directing, writing and producing the show about a hitman who moves to Los Angeles and gets involved in the acting scene.
Seth Rogen is nominated for best supporting actor in a limited series and for producing “Pam and Tommy” — the story of how an infamous sex tape of actress Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was made public.
– Bring on the gala –
For the first time in the era of Covid-19, the Television Academy is staging a full-throttle show at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, after a largely virtual event in 2020 and a scaled-back event at a partially outdoor venue last year.
“Saturday Night Live” veteran Kenan Thompson, himself a past Emmy winner, will make his debut as host. The festivities begin at 5:00 pm Monday (0000 GMT Tuesday).
The show is being held on a Monday night this year because NBC, which has the rotating network rights to air it, also airs Sunday Night Football, and the gridiron trumps Tinseltown, with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the schedule.
– Hulu has high hopes –
HBO and Netflix tend to dominate the Emmys, but 2022 could be a banner year for Hulu, which is majority-owned by Disney.
The US-only streamer, specializing in more adult-oriented content than Disney+, creates originals such as 2017 drama winner “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and has been ramping up production.
This year, it has a handful of top contenders in the limited series categories.
Michael Keaton is the frontrunner for best actor in a limited series for playing a doctor embroiled in the US opioid epidemic in “Dopesick,” which raked in 14 nominations.
Amanda Seyfried is the frontrunner for best actress glory in the same section for her turn as disgraced biotech star Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout.”
“Pam and Tommy” has 10 nominations, and comedy “Only Murders in the Building” — starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as an unlikely trio of true-crime podcasters — is also in the mix.
– Posthumous pre-gala Emmy for Boseman –
“Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman died in August 2020 after battling colon cancer — a diagnosis he never publicly discussed.
Last year, he narrowly missed out to Anthony Hopkins on a posthumous Oscar, for best actor in blues drama “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
But he earned some final awards glory at the Creative Emmys, winning for voicing a version of his “Black Panther” character in Marvel’s animated series “What If…?”
Other winners at the pre-gala event were former US president Barack Obama (now halfway to an EGOT with his two Grammys), pop star Adele, rapper Eminem and reality show host RuPaul.
