One Year Ago Today (September 19, 2020)…Eddie Murphy was among the winners on the final day of the five-day Creative Arts Emmy Awards, receiving the Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a comedy for hosting Night Live.”
The Emmy is the first for Murphy, who had been nominated four previous times, twice as a “Saturday Night Live” cast member and once as a writer for the NBC late-night comedy series and a producer of the Fox animated series “The PJs.”
Murphy hosted the Dec. 21, 2019 episode, the first time he hosted the program since Dec. 15, 1984.
“Saturday Night Live” hosts have won in the category a record six times. Dave Chappelle was the most recent “Saturday Night Live” host to win in the category before Murphy, receiving the Emmy in 2017.
Brad Pitt was also among the nominees, nominated for his portrayal of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci in the cold open to the April 25 “Saturday Night Live at Home” episode.
The late Fred Willard was also among the nominees, nominated for his role as the father of Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) on “Modern Family.” Willard was also nominated for the role in 2010.
Willard was nominated for a Primetime Emmy five times, never winning. He was nominated for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series in 2003, 2004 and 2005 for his portrayal of the high school principal father of Amy MacDougall-Barone (Monica Horan) on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Willard died May 15 at age 86.
The other nominees are Adam Driver for hosting the Jan. 25 “Saturday Night Live” episode, Dev Patel for his role on the Amazon Prime Video anthology “Modern Love” as the polished, young, well-dressed, energetic and charming founder of a very successful dating app who has had a hard time finding love himself; and Luke Kirby, the winner in the category last year, reprising his role as envelope-pushing comedian Lenny Bruce on Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Maya Rudolph won her second career Emmy two days after winning her first. She won the outstanding guest actress in a comedy Emmy for her portrayal of California Sen. Kamala Harris in a parody of the week’s Democratic presidential debate on the “Saturday Night Live” episode Murphy hosted.
Rudolph was also nominated for her role of the all-knowing judge found in the Neutral Zone between the Bad Place and the Good Place on NBC’s “The Good Place,” a role she had also been nominated for in 2018 and 2019. She had also been nominated in the category in 2012 for hosting “Saturday Night Live.”
Rudolph won the Emmy for outstanding character voice-over performance Thursday for supplying the voice of Connie the Hormone Monstress on Netflix’s coming-of-age adult animated sitcom “Big Mouth.”
The other nominees were Bette Midler for her role as the chief of staff to New York Senate Majority Leader Dede Standish (Judith Light) on Netflix’s “The Politician”; Angela Bassett for her appearance on the premiere of HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show”; Wanda Sykes for her portrayal of comedian Moms Mabley on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; and Phoebe Waller-Bridge for hosting the Oct. 5, 2019, “Saturday Night Live” episode.
Ron Cephas Jones won his second outstanding guest actor in a drama series Emmy in three years for his role as the cancer-stricken biological father of Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown) on NBC’s “This Is Us.”
Jones’ victory came two days after his daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones won the outstanding actress in a short form comedy or drama series Emmy for her portrayal of the wife of a Black Iraqi War veteran (Stephan James) who holes up in his apartment along with his family after an altercation with overzealous New Orleans Police Department officers in Quibi’s “#FreeRayshawn.”
The younger Jones’ victory made her and her father the 14th parent-and-child combination to both win Emmys.
Cherry Jones’ portrayal of the matriarch of her powerful New England family on HBO’s “Succession” brought her a second consecutive outstanding guest actress in a drama series Emmy. She won in 2019 for her role as the mother of June (Elisabeth Moss) in Hulu’s dystopian drama, “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
RuPaul won for host of a reality or competition program for the fifth consecutive year.
The host of VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” won in a field that also consisted of Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec and Kevin O’Leary (“Shark Tank”); Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman (“Making It”); Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness (“Queer Eye”); Padma Lakshmi & Tom Colicchio (“Top Chef”) and Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”).
Other winners at what the Television Academy described as a virtual ceremony where “an eclectic mix of awards across all genres” were presented included ESPN’s 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls, “The Last Dance,” which received the Emmy for outstanding documentary or nonfiction series; Netflix’s look at the Navarro College cheer squad, “Cheer,” the winner for outstanding unstructured reality program; and HBO’s “Bad Education” as outstanding television movie.
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. Many of its awards are in technical categories.
The awards began Monday with a ceremony honoring reality and nonfiction programming. Tuesday’s ceremony honored variety programming. Scripted programming was honored Wednesday and Thursday.
Disney+’s live action “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” and HBO’s superhero limited series “Watchmen” both won seven Emmys over the five ceremonies. “Saturday Night Live” won six and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” five.
HBO and Netflix both won 19 Emmys and Disney+ and NBC eight each.
Awards in the top 23 categories in comedy, drama, competition, limited and variety talk series and the Governors Award will be presented during the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday.
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