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This year's best: Winners to be named at the 73rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards

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Author: 
Sarah Passingham / TV Media
Multiple Emmy winner Stephen Colbert is nominated again this year at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards

Multiple Emmy winner Stephen Colbert is nominated again this year at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards

Has there been a better year to reward escapism in recent memory than this one? Television took viewers everywhere we couldn't travel, provided good laughs during trying moments and gave us something to share theories about online every week. Now it's time to join Cedric the Entertainer ("The Last O.G.") as he hosts the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, airing live on CBS on Sunday, Sept. 19, and see who will take home the coveted statuettes for the best of the best in television this year.

Cedric stars in and executive produces the hilarious CBS sitcom "The Neighborhood," but he is no stranger to running the show: he also hosts "The Greatest #AtHome Videos," another special CBS series, created in 2020 to highlight joyful videos filmed during quarantine. With two CBS hits under his belt, the performer is a no-brainer to host the Emmys.

Excited to step into his Emmy hosting shoes, Cedric told The L.A. Times that the awards are "a celebration of the people that actually are part of your homes and a part of your life."

Another entertainer who has recently become part of our homes is Primetime Emmy winner Dan Levy.

As a breakout star of the mega-hit CBC and Pop TV sitcom "Schitt's Creek," Levy took home four awards at last year's show for acting, writing, directing and producing. "Schitt's Creek" made and broke records with its seven wins that year, sweeping all four comedy acting categories and garnering the most awards for a single season of a comedy series in Emmys history.

The "Schitt's Creek" sweep at 2020's 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards was a heartwarming event to have happened during an objectively disheartening year. It brought together overwhelming audience and critic enthusiasm for a feel-good show and sent "Schitt's Creek" off on a high note following its sixth and final season.

Levy is nominated again this year, this time for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as guest host of sketch comedy mainstay "Saturday Night Live," which also included a cameo from his father, "Schitt's Creek" co-star and "SCTV" legend Eugene Levy. Phoebe Bridgers was the musical guest on the Feb. 6, 2021, episode (the 900th of the series) and she notably smashed her guitar during the performance of her song "I Know the End." A hall-of-fame-worthy episode, to be sure.

For late-night veteran Stephen Colbert, taking home an Emmy would simply be the cherry on top of an enviable awards sundae.

While nominations in three Emmys categories this year is no slouch, Colbert recently received another coveted honor. "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" was an entertainment honoree of the 2020 George Foster Peabody Awards, alongside fellow Emmy nominated series "I May Destroy You," "Small Axe," "Ted Lasso," "The Good Lord Bird" and the Emmy-winning "Unorthodox."

Dan Levy, whose "Schitt’s Creek" won big last year, is nominated again this year at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards

Dan Levy, whose "Schitt’s Creek" won big last year, is nominated again this year at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards

If we're talking about exceptional hosts, first-time Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program nominee Nicole Byer must be mentioned for the amusingly absurd job she does hosting Netflix's "Nailed It."

For her category, Byer is up against some heavy hitters, with fellow nominees Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness of "Queer Eye"; RuPaul ("RuPaul's Drag Race"), Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank"; and Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons of "Top Chef."

An exciting first-time acting nominee this year is "Saturday Night Live" star Bowen Yang.

Nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on the sketch show, Yang has given unforgettably funny performances, including his impersonation of iconic New York humorist Fran Lebowitz and an appearance as the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, as well as a passionate "Weekend Update" segment in response to the rise of violence against Asian Americans. Yang was previously nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series at the 71st Annual Primetime Emmys in 2019, also for "Saturday Night Live."

The acting categories of the Emmys are always exciting races to watch, and this year's Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Anthology Series or Movie may be most exemplary of the television that had us all talking, theorizing and taking up new hobbies this year. Nominees for the award are Cynthia Erivo ("Genius: Aretha" 2020), Michaela Coel ("I May Destroy You"), Kate Winslet ("Mare of Easttown"), Anya Taylor-Joy ("The Queen's Gambit") and Elizabeth Olsen ("WandaVision").

The actors nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series also have a tight race between them. It's anyone's game in this category, with nominees Regé-Jean Page ("Bridgerton"), Josh O'Connor ("The Crown"), Jonathan Majors ("Lovecraft Country"), Matthew Rhys ("Perry Mason"), Billy Porter ("Pose") and Sterling K. Brown ("This Is Us") all having delivered incredible performances.

Cheer on your favorite nominees and tune in for the 73rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards live on CBS this Sunday, Sept. 19.