As reported by the staggering list of nominees, the Television Academy had already set a record with the 2020 EMMY Awards as the ceremony – its 72nd annual – nominated its most Black acts ever with over 34% of the nominations.
It should not come as no surprise then that the actual event, which aired Sunday (September 20), saw the most trophies handed out to Black performers – especially in major categories.
Details inside:
Out of the 18 acting awards handed out at the 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (and Creative Arts EMMYs), nine of them went to Black actors.
“Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (both of HBO’s Watchmen), Uzo Aduba (FX on Hulu’s Mrs. America) and Zendaya (HBO’s Euphoria) all won honors during Sunday’s ceremony. They join Eddie Murphy, Maya Rudolph and Ron Cephas Jones, who won guest acting Emmys on Saturday. The seven Emmy wins by Black actors in the drama, comedy and limited series fields tops the previous high of six, set two years ago.
Rudolph also won a second Emmy this week for outstanding voiceover performance for her work on Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth. Black actors (Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones of Quibi’s #FreeRayshawn) also earned both short-form acting awards, and RuPaul won his fifth straight Emmy for best reality host.”
Elsewhere on the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted telecast, Ron and Jasmine (as mentioned above) made history for becoming the first father-daughter duo to nab EMMYs on the same night.
Finally, Zendaya nabbed her first career Emmy and made history for becoming the youngest ever winner for lead actress in a drama series. What’s more, she’s just the second Black woman to win in that category (following Viola Davis in 2015).
Click here to see the full list of 2020 winners.