The five-night Creative Arts Emmy Awards begin Monday with Jerry Seinfeld and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among the nominees for the virtual ceremony honoring reality and nonfiction programming.
Seinfeld is nominated as the host and an executive producer of Netflix’s “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” which is vying for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special.
The other nominees are A&E’s “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath”; Netflix’s “Ugly Delicious,” Netflix; “Vice,” which airs on Showtime; “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” which streams on Disney+.
The category was called outstanding informational series or special from 2013 through 2019.
Seinfeld is a 20-time Emmy nominee, mainly as a producer. His only Emmy came in 1993 as a producer of his classic NBC series “Seinfeld” which won for outstanding comedy series.
Seinfeld is also nominated as an executive producer and performer for Netflix’s “Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours To Kill,” which is nominated for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded). The award in the category will be presented Saturday.
Abdul-Jabbar is nominated for best narrator for the History special “Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution.” Sir David Attenborough, the winner the past two years, is nominated for his work on the “Antarctica” episode of “Seven Worlds, One Planet” documentary series, which airs on BBC America.
The other nominees are Angela Bassett for the “The Happiest Place On Earth” episode of the Disney+ documentary series, “The Imagineering Story”; Chiwetel Ejiofor for “The Elephant Queen,” the documentary that streamed on Apple TV+ about a mother elephant that tries to protect her herd when it is forced to leave a waterhole; and Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o for the “Destiny” episode of “Serengeti,” which followed the heartwarming stories of a cast of African wildlife.
The Netflix makeover series “Queer Eye” is nominated for its third consecutive Emmy for outstanding structured reality series. The other nominees are ABC’s “Shark Tank,” the winner from 2014-17; HGTV’s “A Very Brady Renovation”; PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow”; and the Netflix dating series “Love is Blind.”
Many of the Creative Arts Emmys are in technical categories, such as picture editing, costuming, hairstyling, makeup and sound.
Variety programming will be honored at Tuesday’s ceremony. Wednesday and Thursday’s ceremonies will be devoted to scripted programming. What the Television Academy describes as “an eclectic mix of awards across all genres” will be presented Saturday.
Monday through Thursday’s ceremonies will be streamed on Emmys.com at 5 p.m. Saturday’s ceremony will be broadcast on FXX at 5 p.m.
The Creative Arts Emmy Awards honor programming that initially aired between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. from June 1, 2019, to May 31, 2020.
Awards in the top 23 categories in comedy, drama, competition, limited and variety talk series and the Governors Award will be presented at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday.