The two-night 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards begin Saturday at the Microsoft Theater with former President Barack Obama, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the late actor Chadwick Boseman among the nominees.
Awards in 45 categories for reality, documentary and nonfiction programming will be presented, including outstanding host for a reality or competition program, with RuPaul seeking his seventh consecutive victory. The host of VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has won each time he has been nominated.
RuPaul’s six wins are the most in the category established in 2008. “Survivor’s” Jeff Probst is second with four.
The only nominees who weren’t also nominated last year were Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman from NBC’s “Making It.” They were nominated each of the first two seasons of the series’ run. No new episodes aired during the eligibility period for the 2021 awards.
The other nominees are Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary from ABC’s “Shark Tank”; Padma Lakshmi from Bravo’s “Top Chef”; Nicole Byer from Netflix’s “Nailed It!”; and Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness from Netflix’s “Queer Eye.”
Obama was nominated for outstanding narrator for the five-part Netflix documentary series, “Our Great National Parks,” for which he was also among the executive producers. The Emmy nomination is the first for Obama, who has received three Grammy nominations for best spoken word album, winning twice.
Abdul-Jabbar is among the nominees as well, for his work on the History documentary, “Black Patriots: Heroes Of The Civil War,” for which he was among the executive producers. Abdul-Jabbar also was nominated in the category in 2020 for “Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution,” losing to David Attenborough, who is among Saturday’s nominees.
Attenborough’s three victories share the lead in the category with Keith David. Attenborough’s seven nominations are the most in the category.
The other nominees are W. Kamau Bell for Part 1 of the Showtime documentary, “We Need To Talk About Cosby,” and Lupita Nyong’o for the Discovery+ wildlife series, “Serengeti II.” Nyong’o was previously nominated in the category in 2020 for the series’ first season, “Serengeti.”
Boseman was nominated for outstanding character voice-over performance for reprising the live-action role of T’Challa for the Disney+ Marvel Studios animated series, “What If…?” that reimagines famous events from Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Boseman played the role in four films, including “Black Panther.”
The nomination was the first for Boseman, who died of colon cancer on Aug. 28, 2020, at the age of 43.
A second nominee in the category also was nominated posthumously. Jessica Walter was nominated for voicing spymaster Malory Archer on the FX adult animated comedy “Archer” for the second consecutive year. She died March 24, 2021, at age 80.
Maya Rudolph is seeking her third consecutive victory in the category. She won the past two years for supplying the voice of Connie the Hormone Monstress on the Netflix adult animated coming-of-age comedy “Big Mouth.”
Julie Andrews is nominated for the second consecutive year for providing the voice of the anonymous newsletter columnist Lady Whistledown on Netflix’s steamy alternate history period drama “Bridgerton.”
A second Oscar winner is also among the nominees, F. Murray Abraham, for supplying the voice of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon and vengeance, in the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero limited series, “Moon Knight.”
The remainder of the field consists of a second nominee from “What If…?” Jeffrey Wright, who supplied the voice of “The Watcher,” and Stanley Tucci, nominated for a second consecutive year for providing the voice of hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham on the Apple TV+ adult musical animated comedy “Central Park.”
Programming must premiere between June 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022, to be eligible.
Awards in 48 categories in scripted programming will be presented Sunday, mainly in such technical categories as cinematography, costuming, hairstyling, makeup and picture editing, but also for outstanding television movie and guest acting.
An edited presentation of the two ceremonies will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 10 on FXX and will be available for streaming on Hulu Sept. 11-27.
Awards in the top 25 categories in comedy, drama, competition, limited, variety sketch and talk series and the Governors Award will be presented at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 12, also at the Microsoft Theater.