The nominations for the 2020 Emmy Awards have officially been announced!
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is set to honor the best in TV programming come Sept. 20, and with shows like Ramy, Schitt's Creek and The Mandalorian scoring a number of nominations, the ceremony has the potential to be quite historic.
That's right—despite the Emmys dating back to 1949, there are still a number of "firsts" and record-breaking wins each year.
This year is no exception, and due to the coronavirus pandemic, even the ceremony will likely be the first of its kind. Jimmy Kimmel is set to host the awards show, and even he admitted, "I don't know where we will do this or how we will do this or even why we are doing this, but we are doing it and I am hosting it."
Ahead of TV's biggest night, Saturday Night Live star and two-time Emmy nominated comedian Leslie Jones hosted the announcement of the 2020 nominations on Tuesday morning, getting help from presenters Laverne Cox, Josh Gad and Tatiana Maslany, along with Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma.
HBO'S Watchmen dominated the nominations, nabbing a total of 26. Other shows going into September's awards show with multiple nominations include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Succession, Ozark and Saturday Night Live.
As it turns out, a number of the TV programming nominees have already made history just by receiving nods. Scroll through the photo gallery below to see which shows and actors have already earned their place in the Emmys hall of fame, and which have the potential to should they win at the 72nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards!
Jennifer Aniston is certainly no stranger to the Emmys, having received a total of five nominations over the course of her career. However, prior to this year's awards show, Aniston had only competed in the comedy categories.
Now, the actress is nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category for her role as Alex Levy in the AppleTV+ series The Morning Show.
Making the honor even more special is the fact that this is Aniston's first time being nominated in 16 years! She was last recognized for her work as Rachel in the hit NBC sitcom Friends in 2004.
NBC's This Is Us has been the lone broadcast show nominated in the Outstanding Drama Series category since it first premiered in 2016, but this year, even the Pearson family didn't make the cut.
As a result, for the first time in four years, there are no broadcast series nominated in the drama category.
The series that did make the cut: Better Call Saul, The Crown, The Handmaid's Tale, Killing Eve, The Mandalorian, Ozark, Stranger Things and Succession.
Hulu series Ramy is now the first Muslim-American sitcom to ever land an Emmy nomination.
The show scored a total of three nominations in the comedy series categories, including Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Directing for Ramy co-creator and star Ramy Youssef.
Youssef's season 2 co-star Mahershala Ali was also nominated.
By being nominated for Leading Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in NBC's The Good Place, Ted Danson has extended his already-existing record of the most nominations for the category. More specifically, he's up from last year's 13 nods to 14 this year!
Euphoria star Zendaya didn't just score her first-ever Emmy nom—she also earned the chance to become the youngest woman ever to win the trophy for Lead Actress in a Drama.
The 23-year-old will be 24 by the time the awards show rolls around, but even then, if Zendaya wins, she'd still be two years younger than the current record holder (Jodie Comer) was when she scored the Emmy at 26.
The two will actually face off against each other in the category, along with Comer's Killing Eve co-star Sandra Oh, and The Morning Show's Jennifer Aniston, The Crown's Olivia Colman and Ozark's Laura Linney.
The RuPaul's Drag Race showrunner has won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program four years in a row, and if he can maintain his streak this year, he'll break the record for the most ever wins in the category. RuPaul is currently tied with Survivor host Jeff Probst's record of four Emmy wins.
This year, he's up against Making It's Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman; Nailed It!'s Nicole Byer, Queer Eye's Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness; Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec and Kevin O'Leary; and Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio.
The Canadian sitcom was a big hit with the Television Academy this year. Just one episode of Schitt's Creek, "Happy Ending"—an admittedly special one, as it was the series finale—earned 7 noms, meaning it could go on to break the record for the most Emmys that a single episode of television has ever won.
The current record is six, held by both Boardwalk Empire's pilot and Game of Thrones' "Battle of the Bastards."
That's not all, though! Schitt's Creek stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara were both nominated in the lead acting in a comedy series categories. If both win, they would join the small number of actors and shows to win Best Comedy Series, Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy Actor in the same year. 30 Rock was the last to achieve this in 2008.
With a total of 160, Netflix broke the record for the most nominations in a single year. Amazon Prime Video and Hulu also fared well—both platforms received more than 25 noms each—but what's equally notable are the nods garnered by brand new streaming services Disney+, AppleTV+ and Quibi.
Disney+ leads the pack of newbies with 19 nominations; 15 of which went to Star Wars series The Mandalorian. AppleTV+ came in just after with 18 noms thanks to shows like Central Park, The Morning Show and Defending Jacob.
Then there's the mobile-first service Quibi, which made waves in the shortform categories with a total 10 nominations.
Who or what are you rooting for at the 2020 Emmy Awards? Let us know below!