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Emmy Awards 2016 reflect the ongoing issues in America

The nominees for this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards reflect the ongoing issues of the last few years. The event’s sixty-eighth edition is set to air September 18 at eight p.m. EDT on ABC and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

The current, heated Presidential Campaign in the United States, coupled with concerns regarding diversity and the status of minorities, and the growing concerns regarding cyber security can be seen in some of the nominees. There is the political drama House of Cards, the conspiracy thriller Mr. Robot, the political satire Veep, the modern family comedy black-ish that focus on African-Americans, among others.

A general view of atmosphere during the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations at SilverScreen Theater at the Pacific Design Center on July 16, 2015 in West Hollywood, California. Image credit: Tommaso Boddi/WireImage.

An Emmys full of diversity

In particular, the major acting categories all have at least one minority actor nominated. A striking contrast to the last Academy Awards, which had plenty controversy because of the very noticeable lack of diversity among its nominees.

Viola Davis, already honored the previous year as the first woman of color to win the prize for the best drama series actress, is once again nominated for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series” for her work on How to get Away with Murder.

Viola Davis at How To Get Away With Murder. Image credit: ABC.

Another actress in that category is Empire’s Taraji P. Henson. Rami Malek and the Oscar winner Kevin Spacey are both nominated for that award’s spear counterpart, “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series” for their work on USA Network’s Mr. Robot and Netflix’s House of Cards, respectively.

Aziz Ansari and Anthony Anderson, for their part, are both nominated for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series” for their work in Netflix’s Master of None and ABC’s Black-ish, respectively.

Another point to note for diversity is that one of the most nominated shows for this year’s edition of the Primetime Emmy Awards is the limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, with twenty-two overall nominations.

It is set to fight against the “everyone-and-their-mother” series, and last year’s champion, HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is the most nominated program this year, and also the most nominated drama series.

Who is going to take the golden statue home?

“The People v O.J. Simpson’ is going to sweep the Emmys. It is guaranteed to win best-limited series and for Sarah Paulson to win for playing prosecutor Marcia Clark,” has stated Tom O’Neil, which is the editor of awards prediction site Goldderby.com.

O’Neil believes that not only will it win in the “Best Limited Series” category, but also get Sarah Paulson the prize for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.”

Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark. Image credit: O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

The new voting system

It is important to note that the TV Academy has made some substantial revisions on how voting works.

Instead of a ranking and points system, voters now merely pick their top choice. Also, voting was expanded from just blue-ribbon panels to permitting for a lot more of the over twenty-thousand members of the TV Academy a chance to vote for the finalists. This could change the outcomes in the twenty-seven categories.

How to watch?

On TV:  For those who live in the United States, they can watch the ceremony on ABC. And for those who do not like paying cable, ABC can be seen for free using an HD antenna.

In the meantime, E! and CBS News will have the Red Carpet live from 4:30 pm Eastern Time. In ABC, the Red Carpet coverage will start at 7:00 pm Eastern Time, and the actual ceremony will begin at 8:00 pm.

Online: Those who are subscribed to TV cable and have ABC can stream the live ceremony on ABC’s website or APP.

It is imperative to use a login since the website will ask to authenticate a cable credentials.

Nonetheless, for those who do no pay cable, Internet TV service Sling TV has ABC if one pays for the “Broadcast Extra.” This is only available in Fresno-Visalia, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and New York.

Better yet? Sling TV offers a seven-day free trial that is perfect for watching the awards tonight.

Playstation Vue also offers ABC for Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York. Although Vue has expanded to cover the entire United States, broadcast networks, such as ABC remain only for the cities described above.

For those who live outside the Unites States and would like to watch the awards in Vue or Sling, they would have to sign up for a VPN service that confuses those websites into believing one is living in the United States.

Source: The Washington Post

Categories: Entertainment
Daniel Contreras:
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