73rd Primetime Emmy Awards


The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2020, until May 31, 2021, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The award ceremony was held live on September 19, 2021, at the Event Deck at L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles, California, and was preceded by the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 11 and 12. During the ceremony, Emmy Awards were handed out in 27 different categories. The ceremony was produced by Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart, directed by Hamish Hamilton, and broadcast in the United States by CBS and Paramount+. Cedric the Entertainer served as host for the event.
At the main ceremony, The Crown became the first drama series to sweep all the major categories, winning all seven awards including Outstanding Drama Series. Ted Lasso led all comedies with four wins, including Outstanding Comedy Series, while Hacks won three awards. Mare of Easttown also won three awards, leading all limited series, but Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series went to The Queen's Gambit. Other winning programs include Halston, Hamilton, I May Destroy You, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, RuPaul's Drag Race, Saturday Night Live, and Stephen Colbert's Election Night 2020. Including Creative Arts Emmys, The Crown and The Queen's Gambit led all programs with 11 wins each; Netflix led all networks and platforms with 44 total wins.

Winners and nominees

The nominations for the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on July 13, 2021, by Ron and Jasmine Cephas Jones via a virtual event. Including nominations at the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, The Crown and The Mandalorian tied for the most nominations, with 24 each. HBO and HBO Max received a combined 130 nominations, making them the most-nominated network, ahead of Netflix by only one nomination. Ted Lasso became the most-nominated first-year comedy series in the awards' history with 20 nominations; the Apple TV+ sports comedy surpassed the record held by the Fox musical comedy-drama Glee, which received 19 nominations in 2010. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez of the series Pose became the first transgender person to be nominated for a major acting Emmy Award. Additionally, 43 non-White actors received nominations for acting, besting the previous record of 36.
The winners were announced on September 19, following the Creative Arts Emmys on September 11 and 12. The Crown and The Queen's Gambit led all series with 11 wins each. The two shows gave Netflix its first series wins after 30 previous nominations for comedy, drama, and limited series dating back to 2013. The Crown won all seven drama categories at the main ceremony, becoming the first show to sweep the major drama categories. It also became just the third show to complete a sweep of the major categories, following Angels in America as a limited series in 2004 and Schitt's Creek as a comedy in 2020. The Queen's Gambit became the first web series to win Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Netflix led all platforms with 44 wins, marking the first time it won more awards than any other network or platform and tying the record set by CBS in 1974 for the most wins by a network in a year. The fourth season of The Handmaid's Tale was nominated for 21 awards but did not win any, breaking Mad Mens record of 17 nomination losses in 2012 for the largest "shutout" in Emmys history.
For individual achievements, RuPaul became the most-awarded black individual in Emmys history with his win as a producer of RuPaul's Drag Race for Outstanding Competition Program. Michaela Coel became the first black woman to win for limited series writing for I May Destroy You. Jean Smart became the second woman to win Emmys for lead, supporting, and guest acting in comedies, after Betty White. Directing wins for Lucia Aniello and Jessica Hobbs marked the first time women won Emmys for comedy and drama directing in the same year.
While a record was set for diverse nominations and the ceremony featured many presenters of color, white individuals won all 12 major acting trophies. This led to the hashtag #EmmysSoWhite trending on Twitter, echoing #OscarsSoWhite from the 87th Academy Awards in 2015. For comparison, the previous year saw four black winners in the acting categories. In total, only three individuals of color spoke when accepting awards – RuPaul, Coel, and Debbie Allen – though there were other winners of color on producing and writing teams. The Creative Arts Emmys were more diverse, with three of the four guest acting winners being black and many people of color winning in technical categories, though those awards are considered less notable.
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger. For simplicity, producers who received nominations for program awards, as well as nominated writers for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, have been omitted.

Programs

Acting

Lead performances

Supporting performances

Directing

Writing

Governors Award

The Governors Award was presented to Debbie Allen "in recognition of her numerous contributions to the television medium through multiple creative forms and her philanthropic endeavors around the world".

Nominations and wins by program

For the purposes of the lists below, "major" constitutes the categories listed above, while "total" includes the categories presented at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
NominationsShowNetwork
13Ted LassoApple TV+
11The CrownNetflix
11The Handmaid's TaleHulu
9HamiltonDisney+
8WandaVisionDisney+
7Mare of EasttownHBO
7Saturday Night LiveNBC
6HacksHBO Max
6I May Destroy YouHBO
6Lovecraft CountryHBO
6The Queen's GambitNetflix
5The Flight AttendantHBO Max
5The MandalorianDisney+
5PoseFX
3Black-ishABC
3BridgertonNetflix
3The Kominsky MethodNetflix
3This Is UsNBC
2A Black Lady Sketch ShowHBO
2The BoysPrime Video
2Last Week Tonight with John OliverHBO
2The Late Show with Stephen ColbertCBS
2MomCBS
2PEN15Hulu
2Perry MasonHBO
2The Underground RailroadPrime Video

NominationsShowNetwork
24The CrownNetflix
24The MandalorianDisney+
23WandaVisionDisney+
21The Handmaid's TaleHulu
21Saturday Night LiveNBC
20Ted LassoApple TV+
18Lovecraft CountryHBO
18The Queen's GambitNetflix
16Mare of EasttownHBO
15HacksHBO Max
12BridgertonNetflix
12HamiltonDisney+
9The Flight AttendantHBO Max
9I May Destroy YouHBO
9PoseFX
9RuPaul's Drag RaceVH1
7Allen v. FarrowHBO
7Last Week Tonight with John OliverHBO
7The Social DilemmaNetflix
7The Underground RailroadPrime Video
7The VoiceNBC
6The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken HeartHBO
6Bo Burnham: InsideNetflix
6David Byrne's American UtopiaHBO
6The Kominsky MethodNetflix
6Queer EyeNetflix
6This Is UsNBC
5A Black Lady Sketch ShowHBO
5Black-ishABC
5The BoysPrime Video
5Dancing with the StarsABC
5David Attenborough: A Life on Our PlanetNetflix
5The Falcon and the Winter SoldierDisney+
5HalstonNetflix
5The Late Show with Stephen ColbertCBS
5Top ChefBravo
5Zoey's Extraordinary PlaylistNBC

WinsShowNetwork
7The CrownNetflix
4Ted LassoApple TV+
3HacksHBO Max
3Mare of EasttownHBO
2Last Week Tonight with John OliverHBO
2The Queen's GambitNetflix

WinsShowNetwork
11The CrownNetflix
11The Queen's GambitNetflix
8Saturday Night LiveNBC
7Ted LassoApple TV+
7The MandalorianDisney+
6Love, Death & RobotsNetflix
5RuPaul's Drag RaceVH1
4Mare of EasttownHBO
3Bo Burnham: InsideNetflix
3David Attenborough: A Life on Our PlanetNetflix
3HacksHBO Max
3Last Week Tonight with John OliverHBO
3PoseFX
3WandaVisionDisney+
2David Byrne's American UtopiaHBO
2Dolly Parton's Christmas on the SquareNetflix
2Genndy Tartakovsky's PrimalAdult Swim
2HamiltonDisney+
2I May Destroy YouHBO
2Life Below ZeroNational Geographic
2Lovecraft CountryHBO
2The Social DilemmaNetflix