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EXTRA EDITION REALITY/ DOCUMENTARY JULY 2, 2020 ADVERTISEMENT 0702 EE Paramount_CVR1.indd 1 6/29/20 3:54 PM Untitled-12 1 6/29/20 4:48 PM STEP INTO THE SPACE OF TOP UNSCRIPTED CONTENDERS STARTING ON PAGE 22 2020 EMMY EDITION REALITY/ DOCUMENTARY CAPTURING HISTORY TO EDUCATE AND ENTERTAIN FASHION FORWARD BEHIND THE SCENES OF DOCUMENTARIANS SET OUT A NEW WAVE OF DESIGN ‘CHEER’ AND ‘HILLARY’ TO TELL FACTUAL STORIES COMPETITION SHOWS HAS THAT STILL DRAW IN A VIEWER INTERNATIONAL APPEAL Untitled-5 1 6/29/20 3:41 PM Untitled-5 1 6/29/20 3:41 PM TOP BILLING TAKING CARE OF HER COMMUNITY Shangela (flanked by Bob the Drag Queen,left, and Eureka O’Hara) launched Feed the Queens to ensure drag queens don’t go hungry. THREE YEARS AGO, Warner Bros. sitcom “Mom” decided to spotlight Planned Parenthood during the Emmy For Your A Platform for Consideration campaign window. It was a move that came with a considerable cash donation ($250,000) but also increased attention on the health organization, as suddenly its name was Philanthropy splashed in headlines alongside heavy-weight talent such as Chuck Lorre, Allison Janney and Anna Faris. Now, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the protests TOP EMMY CONTENDERS ARE MAKING SURE demanding justice and police reform after the murders of Bre- onna Taylor, George Floyd and others, the need to use one’s plat- THE ‘C’ IN ‘FYC’ STANDS FOR CHARITY form to give back has become even greater. BY DANIELLE TURCHIANO “There are a lot of different movements right now, and people are feeling a lot of different pain,” says D.J. Shangela Pierce, star of HBO’s “We’re Here,” who recently launched the Feed the Queens initiative. “In this time, we have to remember that just because we don’t all have all of the resources, those of us who have a little bit more than others need to help out.” Big awards campaign spenders Amazon, Netflix and HBO all announced this year that they were each donating $1 million to help feed those affected by the pandemic: Amazon teamed with - 2020 Jon & Vinny’s restaurant group to prepare meals for No Kid Hun gry, Off Their Plate, the Los Angeles Mission and the Motion Pic- EMMY ture & Television Fund, to name a few. Amazon also dedicated EDITION its For Your Consideration billboard space to promote additional causes that provide aid in this unprecedented time. Meanwhile, HBO 6 VARIETY Untitled-3 1 6/29/20 3:39 PM TOP BILLING Netflix supported the Restaurant Employee merits, period. But when COVID happened, initially trying to raise £1 million ($1.25 mil- Relief Fund, while HBO reallocated the [there were] all of these issues with get- lion) to feed National Health Service workers, money it would have spent on its events ting resources that typically the under-re- but the goal was raised to $2.5 million after to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles Emer- sourced Bronx doesn’t get [and] that seeing so much early success. gency COVID-19 Crisis Fund. Showtime, on situation became more dire,” Lopez says. “It Longtime “Top Chef” host and previous behalf of “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels,” was Black Lives Matter that took up an ini- Emmy nominee Padma Lakshmi recently supported the Farmworkers COVID-19 Pan- tiative, along with places like the World Cen- shot a PSA and participated in a charitable demic Relief Fund, and to support efforts tral Kitchen, feeding these places that were cook-a-thon amid growing concerns about made by the “Desus & Mero” team, the pre- underserved. And it is tragic that munici- people being able to eat as weeks of self-quar- mium cabler also donated to World Central pal services that should be equitably spread antining turned into months. The former was Kitchen and Uplift NYC. through the city, aren’t.” to benefit the James Beard Foundation while “If you want to affect change, that’s where There are few limits to what can be the latter raised funds for Feeding America. money comes in,” says Victor Lopez, exec- accomplished when someone with a pub- Less publicly, she donated to the Marshview utive producer of “Desus & Mero” and pres- lic platform lends time, talent and voice to Community Organic Farm run by Bill and ident, Bodega Boys. “But awareness has its a cause. Sará Green in South Carolina so they could role, and awareness has to be a constant.” Jeff Schaffer (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” feed 2,000 people affected In late April, Lopez, Desus Nice and the “Dave”) used his comedic writing talent and by the pandemic, and she also donated to bail Kid Mero launched efforts to raise both funds producing power when working with Cal- bond funds around the country, including in and awareness for World Central Kitchen, ifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on the Brooklyn, Chicago and Louisville. and in late May they expanded their charita- Stay at Home campaign. Working with his “I really believe that a lot of economic ble giving campaigning to also include Uplift wife and collaborator, Jackie Marcus Schaf- developmental problems in various commu- NYC, which provides low-income youth and fer, he called upon famous friends (such as nities and countries around the world have their families with access to key resources, Larry David) to help spread the message to do with cultural norms that keep percep- including food in the time of the pandemic. of the importance of self-quarantining in tion alive that should be dismantled and And although “Desus & Mero” order to stop the spread of the virus. Simi- those cultural reasons are also a big part of was on a planned hiatus when the protests larly, Kevin Bacon (“City on a Hill”) launched why certain economies are not able to get out began, the team was able to use their sizable an #IStayAtHomeFor challenge on YouTube, from under their poverty,” Lakshmi says. online following in support of Black Lives encouraging his fans to do their part to flat- This is all in addition to longer-term Matter, as well. ten the curve, as well. Meanwhile, Damian causes of Lakshmi’s, including Planned Par- “Black Lives Matter exists on its own Lewis (“Billions”) worked with FeedNHS, enthood, Endometriosis Foundation of Amer- ica, and as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations. She also mentors young womenw in the food business about such thingst as “contract negotiations and other nutsn and bolts things that I never knew about anda had to learn the hard way,” she says. DEDICATED TO “I need to fashion the world I want to live THE CAUSE in.i I need to lend whatever little power I may Padma Lakshmi haveh gained, because if I don’t, what good is shot a new PSA for mym power?” the James Beard Foundation to Pierce teamed up with the Actors Fund highlight food tot create Feed the Queens, which was borne concerns amid outo of seeing drag performers out of work COVID-19. asa clubs and events were closed. With so manym having to choose between paying rent anda eating (or being unable to do either), anda without even one specific organization alreadya designated to help her community, Pierce created one. “COVID-19 hit the Black community signifi- cantly, and a lot of those queens of color are out of work and have even more need. So we are taking a portion of our funds and making sure that they are set aside specifically for queens of color,” she says. As the protests raged on, Pierce took to social media to bring attention to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. But she doesn’t see the two causes as completely separate. “We have so much going on in our own individual lives that we forget to see the things that are happening in our communi- ties, and also to see the things that are happening in our world,” she says. “I think what COVID-19 has done is given us a second to look around without the distractions of life.” JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION JAMES 8 VARIETY Untitled-5 1 6/29/20 3:42 PM IN THE RUNNING goes away and one comes in.” But this year there are two rreasonse to think that maybe a lolong-overdue competition cate- ggory shakeup is coming. First ooff, there’s been a bit of an FRESH FACE IN THE COMPETITION RACE uunscripted revival over the past Netflix’s amateur yyear, thanks in part to the baking series eexpansion of such shows at the “Nailed It!” was sstreaming services. a first-time Emmy nominee in 2019. That includes new entries ssuch as “Making the Cut” (Ama- zonz Prime Video), “Next in Fash- ion”io (Netflix), “Too Hot to Han- dle”d (Netflix), “Be Our Chef” (Disney(D Plus) and “Rhythm + Flow” (Netflix). But the broad- cast networks have been expanding their arsenals too, with shows including “Lego Masters” (Fox), “Holey Moley” (ABC), “Songland” (NBC) and the return of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (ABC). There’s also a chance that, once Emmy voters got “Tiger King” out of their system, they had the time during the COVID- 19 pandemic to sample more unscripted shows than usual, Michael Schneider giving them an opportunity to expand their palate beyond the usual suspects. “I think the fact is that people may have just watched more A Call to Shake Up the shows,” Cutforth says. “You hear people joking about having fin- ished all of Netflix, and I think Competition Category that the amount of TV that people have watched may change the categories across the board.

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