What will the Emmys look like? The show's history-making producer reveals his plans

LOS ANGELES - Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunday's prime-time TV broadcast of the 2020 Emmy Awards will be a tale of reinvention by necessity - and executive producer Reginald Hudlin is loving the possibilities. The director of "House Party" and "Boomerang" and producer of "Django Unchained" and the 88th Academy Awards knows many of the choices he's making for the 72nd edition of TV's biggest prize are going to be firsts. So is Hudlin himself, for that matter: He is the first Black executive producer in Emmys history.

Though the event is based at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, no nominees or live audience will be present, just one of many health and safety restrictions Hudlin and his team are working under. Instead, the production will dispatch camera rigs and crews to more than 130 locations around the world; there, the nominees will have unprecedented freedom to present themselves as they choose to a worldwide audience. Despite all the planning and practice, the gregarious Hudlin knows the deck is stacked with wild cards -