Emmys 2016: start time, live stream, and what to expect

Ready your righteous TV opinions: The 2016 Emmy Awards are upon us, airing live on Sunday, September 18, at 8 pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific on ABC. (You can also watch the ceremony via live stream on ABC’s website or the network’s ABC.com app.) Jimmy Kimmel is set to host.

The 2016 nominations were particularly strong, reflecting a particularly strong year of television. Game of Thrones earned the most nominations of any individual show, with 23. In fact, the show is already a frontrunner to take home the most trophies this year. It won nine awards on September 11 at the Creative Arts Emmys, which cover the technical awards like production design and cinematography, as well as the guest acting categories.

Game of Thrones’ network, HBO, has a typically strong Emmy slate overall; it boasts the most nominees of any network, with 94, including 17 for its comedy Veep. But other networks found more of a foothold than usual this year.

FX did quite well, with its highly acclaimed limited series American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson collecting a stunning 22 nominations (of the network’s 56) just on its own. And Fargo’s second season followed right behind, with 18.

The network also finally saw its brilliant spy thriller The Americans get recognized in the Best Drama, Best Actor in a Drama (Matthew Rhys), and Best Actress in a Drama (Keri Russell) categories for the first time since the show debuted in 2013.

On the comedy front, the aforementioned HBO Emmy favorite Veep leads the nominations with 17, including one for Best Comedy and one for Best Actress in a Comedy for series star (and producer!) Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The first season of Netflix’s Master of None also broke in, and is nominated for Best Comedy and Best Actor in a Comedy for series co-creator Aziz Ansari.

Another notable newcomer to the comedy categories is ABC’s family sitcom Black-ish, which is nominated for Best Comedy and Best Actress in a Comedy, landing Tracee Ellis Ross her first Emmy nod.

Across the board for acting, 2016 is a banner year for diversity at the Emmys, with 21 actors of color earning a nomination in one of the most inclusive nominee slates in the Emmys’ 68-year history.

And with Kimmel handling the hosting duties, we should probably all be on high alert for one — or, God help us, several — of his signature pranks.

But Kimmel won’t be present just to host. Hist late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live is nominated for Best Variety Talk Series, though he recently half-joked to the Hollywood Reporter that he’d rather just do a good job as host than win, because better "a laugh than a trophy."

Here’s how to watch the 68th Annual Emmy Awards:

Emmys ceremony: The Emmys will air live on ABC on Sunday, September 18, at 8 pm Eastern. A live stream will be available on ABC’s website or the network’s ABC.com app.

Emmys red carpet: ABC will kick off its red carpet coverage at 7 pm — though that’s apparently tame, given that the celebrity-driven E network will begin its red carpet coverage at 4:30 pm Eastern.

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