Los Angeles (AFP)

The stars of the TV series were preparing Sunday to put on their favorite pajamas for the evening of the Emmy Awards, the equivalent of the Oscars for the small screen in the United States, where the winners will receive their award at home this year, pandemic obliges.

The 72nd edition of the Emmy Awards must take up the challenge of a 100% virtual show, with comedian Jimmy Kimmel alone at the helm in a deserted Los Angeles room, without red carpet or flashy evening wear.

For this unprecedented edition, cameras were sent home to the 130 or so candidates, who were invited to compete with inventiveness in their speeches.

"For years, audience scores have been at half mast for awards ceremonies. Now is the time to change the game, to have a ceremony unlike any other," said Libby Hill, television award specialist in the editorial staff of the IndieWire site.

“Even if Sunday night turns out to be a disaster, at least it will be an interesting disaster. And that's really all we can ask for in 2020,” she adds.

The "Watchmen" mini-series is the favorite with 26 nominations in its category, and its dark and chaotic universe wonderfully reflects the era of time.

Centered around the massacre of several hundred black inhabitants of the city of Tulsa (Oklahoma) in 1921 by white rioters, "Watchmen" indeed plunges into the heart of racist violence and police brutality, themes which are cruelly topical in United States since the end of May.

- Netflix's revenge?

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With the discontinuation of the hit series "Game of Thrones", also produced by HBO, the competition is finally more open this year in the category of drama series.

"It is a chance for HBO to have + Succession + which comes at the right time", according to Pete Hammond, of the specialized site Deadline.

The dark comedy about the heartbreak of a powerful family to take control of a media empire won an Emmy Award for its first season last year.

It was featured 18 times this time around, tied with Netflix-produced "Ozark" series.

The video-on-demand giant, which was selected 160 times this year, is still waiting to land an Emmy Award in a major category.

In ambush, Sunday we will find "The Crown", dedicated to the British royal family, and "The Mandalorian", the first series from the universe of "Star Wars", which has already earned the new platform Disney + five Emmy Awards in technical categories awarded earlier in the week.

In the comedy category, the Amazon-produced series "La Fabuleuse Mme Maisel", featuring a flouted Jewish wife who embarked on stand-up in New York in the 1950s, was a favorite.

However, she might find the unexpected "Schitt's Creek" on her way.

A Canadian comedy about a family of the fallen privileged, the series went largely unnoticed for its first four seasons before becoming a hit when it aired on Netflix.

Among the hundred nominations for actors and actresses, black artists represent more than a third of the contingent in 2020, a new record.

The fight against racism should feature prominently in the Emmys on Sunday, and we can count on Hollywood stars, often very militant, not to spare President Donald Trump, in the midst of the campaign for his re-election.

They should also pay tribute to the late Supreme Court judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an icon of the American left who died on Friday at the age of 87.

© 2020 AFP