Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
The Emmy Awards are TV's biggest prizes. Actors and shows can win an Emmy.
This year's show is on Monday. It is called the 78th Emmy Awards.
An actress named Mariska Hargitay will host the show. She is famous for a TV show called Law and Order.
Many famous actors are up for prizes. They include Steve Carell, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Harrison Ford.
- award
- a prize given for doing something very well
- host
- a person who leads a TV show or event
- actress
- a woman who acts in movies or TV shows
- famous
- known by many people
- nominee
- a person who might win a prize
- ceremony
- a formal event, often to give out prizes
- theater
- a large building used for shows
- prize
- something given to a winner
Level 2 — Elementary
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, September 14, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony honors the best television shows and performances of the past year.
This year, the show will be hosted by Mariska Hargitay, best known for playing Captain Olivia Benson on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. It will be her first time hosting the Emmys.
Nominations were announced back in July. Well known actors up for awards this year include Steve Carell for the show Rooster, Jamie Lee Curtis for The Bear, Harrison Ford for Shrinking, Lisa Kudrow for The Comeback, Gary Oldman for Slow Horses, and Michelle Pfeiffer for Margo's Got Money Troubles.
Alongside these familiar faces, the nominations also recognized many new and breakout performers. The ceremony will air live on NBC and stream on Peacock, following the smaller Creative Arts Emmy Awards held earlier in the month.
- ceremony
- a formal public event, often to celebrate or honor something
- perform
- to act, sing, or present something in front of an audience
- nomination
- the act of being officially suggested for an award
- breakout performer
- someone who suddenly becomes well known through a role
- stream
- to watch or listen to content online in real time
- recognize
- to formally acknowledge someone's achievement
- familiar
- well known, not new or strange
- honor
- to show great respect for someone's achievement
Level 3 — Intermediate
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards are set to air live on Monday, September 14, at 8 p.m. Eastern from the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, broadcast on NBC and streamed simultaneously on Peacock. For the first time, the ceremony will be hosted by Mariska Hargitay, whose long running role as Captain Olivia Benson on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit has made her one of television's most enduring figures.
Nominations, announced by the Television Academy in July, reflect a mix of established stars and rising talent. Among the recognized performers are Steve Carell for Rooster, Jamie Lee Curtis for The Bear, Harrison Ford for Shrinking, Lisa Kudrow for The Comeback, Gary Oldman for Slow Horses, and Michelle Pfeiffer for Margo's Got Money Troubles, several of whom bring decades of screen experience to categories increasingly populated by newer faces.
The main ceremony follows the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, a two night event held on September 5 and 6 that honors behind the scenes and technical achievements, from cinematography and editing to stunt coordination, categories that rarely receive the same spotlight as the acting and directing awards but form the backbone of television production.
Industry observers note that this year's nominee list continues a trend of streaming platforms and prestige cable dramas dominating the acting categories, even as broadcast networks compete for viewership with an increasingly fragmented field of scripted and unscripted programming.
- broadcast
- to transmit a program on television or radio
- enduring
- lasting for a long time, especially in popularity or relevance
- established
- widely recognized and accepted after a long period of success
- cinematography
- the art of camera work and visual style in film or television
- stunt coordination
- the planning and supervision of dangerous physical action scenes
- backbone
- the essential supporting structure of something
- prestige
- widespread respect and admiration based on achievement or quality
- fragmented
- broken into many separate, smaller parts
Level 4 — Advanced
The Television Academy will convene its 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, September 14, broadcasting live from the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles at 8 p.m. Eastern, with NBC and its streaming counterpart Peacock carrying the ceremony simultaneously. In a notable first, hosting duties fall to Mariska Hargitay, whose two and a half decade tenure as Captain Olivia Benson on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit has rendered her something of an institutional fixture in American television, a status the Academy appears eager to leverage for a broadcast perennially under pressure to demonstrate cultural relevance.
This year's nominee slate, unveiled by the Academy in July, juxtaposes veteran performers against an unusually deep bench of newcomers. Steve Carell's turn in Rooster, Jamie Lee Curtis's work on The Bear, Harrison Ford's role in Shrinking, Lisa Kudrow's performance in The Comeback, Gary Oldman's continued run on Slow Horses, and Michelle Pfeiffer's nomination for Margo's Got Money Troubles collectively represent decades of accumulated screen credibility, even as the broader field increasingly rewards actors making their first substantial impressions on television audiences.
Preceding the headline ceremony, the two night Creative Arts Emmy Awards, held September 5 and 6, recognized the technical and craft disciplines, cinematography, editing, stunt coordination, and related fields, that seldom command the same public attention as acting and directing honors but remain structurally indispensable to the medium's output. The bifurcation of the awards into a glamour focused primetime broadcast and a craft focused earlier ceremony has become an entrenched, if occasionally criticized, feature of the Emmys' calendar.
Analysts tracking the industry point to this year's nominations as further confirmation of a multi year realignment, in which streaming platforms and prestige cable productions have progressively supplanted traditional broadcast dramas atop the acting categories, a shift that mirrors the broader fragmentation of viewership across an expanding, increasingly competitive landscape of scripted and unscripted programming.
- convene
- to formally come together for a meeting or event
- institutional fixture
- a person or thing so established that it seems part of the permanent structure of something
- juxtapose
- to place things side by side for contrast or comparison
- credibility
- the quality of being trusted and believed in
- bifurcation
- the division of something into two distinct parts or branches
- entrenched
- firmly established and difficult to change
- realignment
- a significant shift in the structure or balance of something
- supplant
- to take the place of, especially through force or superior position