Out of three Cornellians nominated in the 72nd Emmy Awards, Keith Raywood ’78 took home the title of Outstanding Production Design For A Variety, Reality Or Competition Series for his production design work on Saturday Night Live. This is Raywood’s fifth time winning the title for his work on SNL, and it is his sixth Emmy award overall.
Raywood graduated from Cornell with an architecture degree. “I love creating new worlds,” Raywood said in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation from 2017. “I love being able to take, whether it’s a script or a concept for something, and being able to see how far I can expand either the story about it or build a fantasy of some kind that would otherwise not exist.”
Raywood has worked on SNL for the past 32 years, but has also worked on several other notable shows, including Lip Sync Battle, The Tonight Show and 30 Rock. His role as a production designer entails coordinating the artistic and visual style of a show to match the director’s vision and create a cohesive work.
This year, the show was run differently compared to previous years due to pandemic precautions. Actors stayed home and accepted awards virtually, the red carpet was canceled and Jimmy Kimmel hosted from a nearly-empty arena. 6.1 million people watched the broadcast from home, a decline from last year’s 6.9 million.
Two other Cornellians, Michael Kantor ’83 and Geoff Haggerty ’02, were also nominated for Emmys.
Kantor was nominated for the Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series award as the executive producer of American Masters, a PBS documentary series profiling American artists. He has previously won the Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Series in 2005 as the executive producer of Broadway: The American Musical.
Haggerty was nominated for the Outstanding Writer for a Variety Show award for his work on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He has previously won the category in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for his work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.