Awards

Trevor Noah was hoping to make some noise with his latest “The Daily Show” Emmy campaign billboard — and it’s a mission he accomplished. “A billboard is supposed to get people’s attention,” Noah told Variety. “If we’re going to make a billboard, why waste your time [if you’re] not telling a joke or making it

Last year’s Emmy Awards opened with a number by “Saturday Night Live’s” Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson, who sang — very tongue-in-cheek — that Hollywood had “solved” its diversity problem. Early in the song, Thompson pointed out that Sandra Oh was the first Asian woman to be nominated for a lead actress Emmy ever. “Thank

Computer-generated 3D animation rules the box office, but good ol’ fashioned 2D animation’s warmth, simplicity and suitability to comedic storytelling has kept it the king of the hill on television. “Comedically, it’s kind of the medium of choice on TV and streaming,” says Andrew Goldberg, co-creator of Netflix’s coming-of-age comedy hit “Big Mouth.” Goldberg and

Great shows often come with epic title sequences. They give audiences a glimpse behind the curtain, set the mood and the tone and prep viewers for (hopefully) undistracted viewing of the story that’s about to start. From the early days of television, shows like “The Twilight Zone” and “Night Gallery” used some of the most

To VFX aficionados, television effects didn’t used to be considered feature film quality, but now they can exceed those old bigscreen standards, as demand and standards keep rising. “Supervisors that aren’t working on Marvel shows are working on episodics,” says Jim Rygiel, a three-time Oscar winner for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Now exec

Composer Joel McNeely stands before 93 musicians on the cavernous Fox scoring stage, his hands raised, about to conduct a musical cue for the season finale of Fox’s “The Orville.” “Very energetic,” he urges, giving the downbeat. For the next three minutes he leads them through a passage that’s variously mysterious, ominous and dramatic, as

When editors take us into a story, they also choose which character will tell us the tale. Characters who’ve been victims of trauma, those who face mental-health issues and have to navigate surreal experiences still have to be engaging for the audience. It’s a difficult line to walk. Some editors also have to make an

TV has no shortage of series that rely on massive explosions, fire-breathing dragons and mystical creatures. But many of the most impressive special effects on TV today are happening in the hair and makeup departments of shows such as “Pose,” “This Is Us” and “The Man in the High Castle.” “When you create a fantasy

To see how far TV series are going to wow viewers with stunts worthy of a big-screen blockbuster, one might need a subscription to a streaming service. A case in point: the spectacular zero-gravity fight scene in the second season finale of CBS All Access’ “Star Trek: Discovery.” Producers weren’t content to fake it with

It isn’t often that costumes get a direct shout-out in a TV show title. But then there’s Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” a singing competition series in which contestants all wore mascot-sized creature costumes, including full headpieces, to disguise themselves in front of a panel of judges.“Singer” became broadcast’s biggest mid-season hit. So all due credit

Sets crafted for television have not traditionally been known for their glamour, says “Fosse/Verdon” (FX) production designer Alex DiGerlando.“TV was always about characters interacting, and sets were something to fill the background,” he notes. “You got close-up and medium shots and you needed some kind of background to make it feel not random. To ground

For many years, true cinematic darkness — the indispensable bass note of any cinematographer’s melody — was a struggle to achieve on television screens. Limitations in capture, transmission and display have been overcome in no small part due to the stubborn vision of directors of photography including Roy Wagner (“Quantum Leap,” “Beauty and the Beast”),

May 29, 2019 12:21PM PT Add MTV to the list of outlets severing ties with actor Jason Mitchell. “The Chi” star will no longer be among the nominees for “Best Performance in a Show” at this year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards. “In light of recent developments, we have removed Jason Mitchell as a nominee,”

From sitcoms to family dramas, TV has always explored fatherhood. But many recent depictions, across genres, are challenging traditional ideas of the nuclear family and redefining what it means to be a dad. From Pray Tell (Billy Porter) on “Pose” to Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) on “The Passage,” biology is not the most important factor

The richer the world a character inhabits, the more material actors have to help inform those characters. From highly stylized shot design to specific time periods that beget unique costumes and hair/makeup design, production elements help craft captivating leading man performances across genres. “Homecoming’s” Stephan James, who portrayed a soldier back from war but enrolled

Intimacy coordinator Alicia Rodis (“The Deuce,” “Crashing”) was working on a short film as a stunt coordinator when she first noticed the need to create protocols for physically intimate scenes, as the industry had for physically violent ones. Joining forces with Tonia Sina and Siobhan Richardson, Rodis co-founded Intimacy Directors International (IDI) in 2015. Since

“Vida” creator and showrunner Tanya Saracho moves offices with every step of the production process in order to be as close to the action as possible. With each move, from the writers’ office to CBS-Radford during filming, to the post house, she brings all the same furniture and personal items with her to create a

In ancient Greece, the masks worn by actors and chorus, signifying comedy or tragedy, made it crystal clear to audiences what was transpiring on stage. Some 2,500 years later, the line between comedy and drama is far more blurred, as evidenced by roles inhabited by countless Emmy contenders. Bill Hader may be best known as

Angel Dumott Schunard’s swan song in “Rent” is the double-entendre infused “Contact,” a high-concept number that features the whole company. The song begins seemingly just as a representation of the various couples’ sex lives but soon turns into a heartbreaking solo as Angel enters a fever dream and then dies of complications from HIV/AIDS. Jonathan

Richard Preston’s 1994 book “The Hot Zone” reflects on the origins of Ebola and the 1980s outbreak that saw the fatal disease hit U.S. soil, and follows the journeys of many individuals who were touched by it at the time. But Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders’ limited series adaptation honed in more specifically on one

For his role as the real-life Lyle Mitchell, husband to the woman who helped two Clinton Correctional Facility, N.Y., inmates escape in Showtime’s limited series “Escape at Dannemora,” Eric Lange gained 40 pounds and wore a wig and a set of fake teeth. The physical transformation helped him get inside the mind of the man

As the volume of original scripted series has continued to grow, the number of central characters, often embodied by big name talent, has increased as well. This is causing an influx of co-stars seeing their names alongside each other’s on the lead acting nomination ballots at the Emmys. “The volume of original programming now and

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” may have finally found a way to get its correspondents some Emmy love. In a first, the late-night show is submitting its team of on-air contributors in the comedy guest actor and guest actress categories. Competing for a nomination in the outstanding guest actor in a comedy

Starz is shaking up its Emmy campaign plans, partnering with the Westfield Century City mall to create a pop-up “For Your Consideration” activation next month. The event, dubbed “Starz FYC: Creativity, Culture, Conversations,” will include an immersive installation showcasing some of the behind-the-scenes crafts on series such as “Power,” “American Gods,” “Vida” and “Outlander,” as

Ellen DeGeneres isn’t ready to throw her support behind a single Democratic presidential candidate to face off with Donald Trump, but she hints that she may be leaning toward one. DeGeneres told Variety that although she remains mostly apolitical on her talk show and in her standup, she’ll definitely be involved in the 2020 campaign.

Emmy: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the awards campaign trail, and CBS All Access will seek out new voters this month at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. The streamer and CBS Television Studios have launched a new “For Your Consideration” exhibit at the Paley Center for “Star Trek: Discovery,”

Code blue: “General Hospital” was the evening’s big winner at the Daytime Emmy Awards, with five awards, followed by “The Young and the Restless,” with three, and culinary series “Valerie’s Home Cooking” with two. Syndicated series led the night with seven wins overall, followed by ABC and CBS with five each. “CBS Sunday Morning” won

It’s go time: Tony season officially kicks off bright and early tomorrow morning (8:30 a.m. ET) when “Hamilton” alum Brandon Victor Dixon and two-time Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth take to the podium at the Library of the Performing Arts in Manhattan to announce the nominations for the 2019 Tony Awards. Here are all of our

A year after an awards debacle rocked the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and nearly took down the Daytime Emmys, the organization has instituted new rules that officials hope have made this year’s proceedings fairer. One major one was to stop the practice of posting acting reel submissions from some key categories

There are no boundaries — besides imagination — in “The Twilight Zone.” But there are when it comes to “The Twilight Zone” in the Emmy race. The CBS All Access anthology series will compete in the drama categories, including outstanding drama series, per a ruling by the Television Academy. In making the decision, the Academy