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Emmys 2020: How to watch tonight's awards with or without cable

Tune in to the virtual ceremony on Sunday, with HBO's Watchmen and Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel leading nominations.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
2 min read

It looks like all eyes will be on HBO's Watchmen at tonight's Primetime Emmy Awards, with the superb superhero drama scoring a whopping 26 nominations, and already pulling in several Creative Emmys. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has put its best foot forward as usual with 20, and Ozark has an impressive 18. Newcomers Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus are both vying to win their first major Emmys, a milestone that no other streaming service has accomplished in its first year.

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HBO's Watchmen has 26 nominations.

Getty

To see who wins the battle of the streamers (Netflix bagged an insane 160 nominations), everything you need to know about watching the ceremony, with or without cable, can be found below.

Read more: The full list of 2020 Emmy nominations, our Emmy 2020 predictions 

Start time

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards was originally going to take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, but instead will be a virtual ceremony.  ABC  will still broadcast the show live on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. ET or 5 p.m. PT.

Watch live for free

If you have an over-the-air antenna hooked up to your TV and get your local ABC station, you can watch for free.

How to watch the Emmys live without cable

Cable TV cord cutters have a number of options for watching the ceremony via a live TV streaming service, detailed below.

Hulu with Live TV costs $55 a month and includes ABC. Click the "View channels in your area" link on its welcome page to see which local channels are offered in your ZIP code.

Read our Hulu with Live TV review.

YouTube TV costs $65 a month and includes ABC. Plug in your ZIP code on its welcome page to see which local networks are available in your area.

Read our YouTube TV review.

AT&T TV Now's basic $55-a-month Plus package includes ABC. You can use its channel lookup tool to see which local channels are available where you live.

Read our AT&T TV Now review.

All of the live TV streaming services above offer free trials, allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our massive streaming services guide.

Who's hosting?

Jimmy Kimmel will host the show for a third time. Despite the good news, he acknowledged the tricky logistics.

"I don't know where or how or even why we are doing this, but we are and I am hosting it!" Kimmel tweeted June 16.

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