72nd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards will honor the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2019, until May 31, 2020, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was originally to be held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was changed virtually from the actors' homes across the U.S. and will be held on September 20, 2020, and broadcast in the U.S. by ABC; it will be preceded by the 72nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 12 and 13. The ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
The nominations were announced on July 28, 2020, by Leslie Jones, Laverne Cox, Josh Gad, and Tatiana Maslany. Watchmen led the nominations with eleven, followed by Succession with ten and Ozark with nine.
Nominees
Comedy
Drama
Limited Series & Movie
Reality
Variety
Most major nominations
Programs that received multiple major nominations are listed below, by number of nominations per work and per network:| Nominations | Show | Network |
| 11 | Watchmen | HBO |
| 10 | Succession | HBO |
| 9 | Ozark | Netflix |
| 8 | The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel | Prime Video |
| 8 | Schitt's Creek | Pop TV |
| 6 | The Crown | Netflix |
| 6 | Mrs. America | FX |
| 5 | The Good Place | NBC |
| 5 | The Morning Show | Apple TV+ |
| 5 | Saturday Night Live | NBC |
| 4 | Better Call Saul | AMC |
| 4 | Hollywood | Netflix |
| 4 | Killing Eve | BBC America |
| 4 | Unorthodox | Netflix |
| 4 | What We Do in the Shadows | FX |
| 3 | The Daily Show with Trevor Noah | Comedy Central |
| 3 | Dead to Me | Netflix |
| 3 | The Handmaid's Tale | Hulu |
| 3 | Insecure | HBO |
| 3 | The Kominsky Method | Netflix |
| 3 | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | HBO |
| 3 | The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | CBS |
| 3 | Little Fires Everywhere | Hulu |
| 3 | Normal People | Hulu |
| 3 | Ramy | Hulu |
| 3 | Unbelievable | Netflix |
| 2 | Big Little Lies | HBO |
| 2 | Black-ish | ABC |
| 2 | A Black Lady Sketch Show | HBO |
| 2 | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS |
| 2 | The Great | Hulu |
| 2 | Westworld | HBO |
| Nominations | Network |
| 42 | Netflix |
| 38 | HBO |
| 15 | NBC |
| 14 | Hulu |
| 11 | FX |
| 8 | Prime Video |
| 8 | Pop TV |
| 5 | Apple TV+ |
| 4 | ABC |
| 4 | AMC |
| 4 | BBC America |
| 4 | Comedy Central |
| 3 | CBS |
| 2 | TBS |
| 2 | Showtime |
Changes
Among the new changes, the "Informational Series or Special" award category has been renamed "Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special".On June 17, 2020, it was announced that the number of nominees in the Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series categories had been increased to 8, while the number of nominees in the remaining the categories would depend on the number of submissions in each category.
On July 29, 2020, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a letter was sent to the nominees and all involved announcing that the ceremony will be virtual rather than take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles as planned.