71st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Date Announced

By Danielle Turchiano

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The 2019 Emmy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, Fox and the Television Academy announced Monday.

Airing live coast-to-coast (8-11 p.m. ET / 5-8 p.m. PT) on from the Microsoft Theater at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., the host and producers for the 71st annual primetime ceremony will be announced at a later date.

The 70th annual Emmys, which took place Monday, Sept. 17 of this year and aired live on NBC, saw a breakthrough for streaming service Amazon, which won eight awards for its comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” overall, including coveted trophies for comedy writing, comedy directing, supporting comedy actress (for Alex Borstein), lead comedy actress (for Rachel Brosnahan) and comedy series. This marked the first time a streaming comedy won the comedy series race in the history of the awards.

HBO’s “Barry” also put out a strong showing in its freshman year at the , with its supporting comedy actor, Henry Winkler, and its leading comedy actor, Bill Hader, winning those categories. The hitman-turned-actor comedy also took home five Creative Arts trophies.

On the drama side, “Game of Thrones” came back strong after sitting out the 2017 race. The HBO epic took nine trophies, seven Creative Arts awards, including fantasy/sci-fi costumes, special visual effects and stunt coordination for a drama, as well as supporting drama actor (for Peter Dinklage) and drama series.

The drama acting categories were shaken up this year, with first time winners Claire Foy (“The Crown”) and Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”) winning lead drama actress and actor, respectively. They bested the previous year’s winners, and returning nominees, Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) and Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”). Interestingly, Foy and Rhys’ wins came in their last year eligible for their respective roles.

“Westworld’s” Thandie Newton won supporting drama actress.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” won the limited series category, and its star Darren Criss won lead limited series/tv movie actor for his role as serial killer Andrew Cunanan. But the Ryan Murphy/FX true crime anthology series did not sweep. The supporting actor and actress trophies here went to “Godless’s” Jeff Daniels and Merritt Wever, respectively.

The 70th annual ceremony saw a record low number of viewers, drawing only 10.2 million total viewers and a 2.4 rating in adults 18-49. This marked an 11% decrease in total viewers from 2017, when the 69th annual ceremony drew 11.4 million viewers.