Here’s What 2020’s Socially Distant Emmys Were Like

The 2020 Emmy Awards ceremony aired live tonight, and after last year’s no-host show, things were back to normal on that front while being completely upside down in every other way, as we’ve become accustomed to lately. Above, you can see Jimmy Kimmel deliver his monologue, which began in kind of a jarring way, though not quite in the way you might expect.

I’ll let you give it a watch to see for yourself if you haven’t yet.

Yes, things kicked off with a fake audience, first in the form of reused footage. For those of us who have become so accustomed to our new, socially distant world that it sometimes feels odd to see even fictional characters not observing proper safety measures, seeing a bunch of celebrities packed into a theater was a bit of a shock, even if we assumed it wasn’t what it seemed.

Of course, it wasn’t, and Kimmel would later reveal that he was actually standing in a theater populated by very few actual people, along with several cardboard cutouts. Then, to actually get some human beings involved, aside from the few in-person presenters, they went the same route as the rest of us: video chat.

Speaking of in-person presenters, one of my personal favorite moments was Jennifer Aniston trying to put out a literal trash fire on stage that … didn’t quite seem to go as planned.

Feels about right for 2020. (There are more clips where that came from on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube page.)

Another was Regina King’s well deserved win for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her starring role in HBO’s Watchmen. During her acceptance speech, she urged U.S. viewers to vote and gave a brief tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday. We also had Zendaya take home an Emmy for HBO’s Euphoria, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy take best actress/actor in a comedy for Schitt’s Creek (and several more wins for the show, which dominated this year), Uzo Aduba win for her role in Mrs. America, and more.

(featured image: ABC)

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