Deadline’s TV Talk Podcast Returns: Flyover Emmy Voters, COVID-19 Realities & ‘Hollywood’s Darren Criss

You can tell when its Emmy season because that also means the return of Deadline’s TV Talk Podcast, featuring TV critic Dominic Patten and awards columnist Pete Hammond. For the 2020 premiere episode, we hit numerous topics related to the changing landscape of this unique Emmy campaign year as we cover the waterfront, as it were, in discussing just how the coronavirus pandemic — and the changes it has required — will directly affect the nominations, and possibly the actual winners of television’s highest award.

Listen here:

Also discussed: Could the fact that the majority of the 25,000 or so Emmy voters are stuck at home mean people are actually watching more contenders than ever, and will that also portend some fresh nominees this year? Unlike other awards, such as the Tonys and potentially the Oscars, both taking direct hits on the content they normally vote on, the Emmys aren’t going to miss a beat.

In fact the pandemic can have a side effect of actually increasing interest in the show itself (if there is one), and certainly the outcome. Also, since the normal campaign can’t be waged as networks and studios seek to grab the attention of voters, how is the way we go about the usual business of the season radically transforming itself?

To find out what it all means, and to listen to us duke it out, listen in. As a bonus, you can also hear some of the latest Actor’s Side interview with Emmy winner and Hollywood star Darren Criss.