Emmy Records to Watch: Netflix, ‘Ted Lasso’ and Bo Burnham Could All Make History

Here are some of the landmark wins that could take place on Sunday

Bo Burnham Mj Rodriguez Ted Lasso
'Bo Burnham: Inside': Netflix / 'Pose': FX / 'Ted Lasso': Apple TV+

Every Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony seems to set a few new records, and Sunday’s 73rd Emmy show will be no different. For starters, if “Saturday Night Live” wins anything — and let’s face it, “SNL” always wins something at the Emmys — it will break and extend its own record as the winningest program in Emmy history.

But there are other records that could fall on Sunday, too, among them records for diversity and a potential new mark for a network or platform in a single year. Here are a dozen records to watch:

• If Netflix wins in 11 of the 19 categories in which it is nominated on Sunday, which is possible if “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” clean up, it will break CBS’ record for the most wins by a network in a single year. Netflix goes into the ceremony with 34 wins from last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, which is already the most it has ever won in a single year. CBS’ record, which was set in 1974, is 44.

• If Black actors win in four of the 11 acting categories in which they are nominated, it will set a new Emmy record for the most Black acting winners in a single year, with 10. At last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, Black actors won in six of the seven acting categories. Last year, nine of the acting winners were Black.  

• If Sterling K. Brown wins for “This Is Us” or Billy Porter wins for “Pose,” they would become only the second Black actor to win twice in the category, after Bill Cosby did it three years in a row for “I Spy” in the 1960s.

• “Pose” star Mj Rodriguez, the first transgender actress to be nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category, could become the first transgender acting winner.

• Bowen Yang (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, “Saturday Night Live”) and Phillipa Soo (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, “Hamilton”) could become the first Asian winners in their categories.

• Emma Corrin (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, “The Crown”) and Carl Clemons Hopkins (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, “Hacks”) could become the first openly nonbinary actors to win acting Emmys.

• If “Ted Lasso” wins in all six of the categories in which it is nominated, it will break the record set by “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” in 2018 for the most wins by a comedy series in its first season, eight.  It comes into the show with three Creative Arts wins.

• If “The Queen’s Gambit” wins in five of the six categories in which it is nominated, it will beat the record set by “John Adams” in 2008 for the most wins for a limited series. “John Adams” won 13 awards, while “Queen’s Gambit” already has nine wins from the Creative Arts Emmys.

• If “The Amazing Race” wins in the Outstanding Competition Program category, it will extend its own record as the winningest show ever in the category.

• If “RuPaul’s Drag Race” wins Outstanding Competition Program, RuPaul Charles will break a tie with cinematographer Donald A. Morgan for the most Emmy wins by any Black person. They are currently tied with 10 wins each.

• If “Bo Burnham: Inside” wins in the Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) category, Burnham will tie Moira Demos (“Making a Murderer,” 2016), Amy Sherman-Palladino (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” 2018) and Dan Levy (“Schitt’s Creek,” 2020) with four individual wins, the most by any person in a single year. He has already won Creative Arts Emmys for the directing, writing and music direction on “Inside.”

• If James Burrows wins in the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series category for the pilot of “B Positive,” he will break his own record with his sixth win in the category.

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