“The Bear” and “Shogun” could soon win trophies at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards

LOS ANGELES – Top Emmy nominees “Shogun” and “The Bear” can start chasing points at the two-day Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which honor artistic and technical achievements in television.

The ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday are a precursor to the main Emmy ceremony, hosted by Dan and Eugene Levy, which airs on ABC on September 15 at 8 p.m. EST.

Speakers at the Creative Arts ceremony, which, like the upcoming major show, will take place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, include Oscar winners and recent Emmy nominees Jamie Lee Curtis and Brie Larson.

The nominees for the creative arts also include big names such as Ryan Gosling and Angela Bassett.

But such nominees don't come often, and the nearly 100 trophies awarded in two marathon shows on Saturday and Sunday are mostly deep cuts for the less famous. Outstanding contemporary makeup (non-prosthetic) is a typical category. The evenings offer a moment of glamour – and, for the winners, a moment on stage – for hairdressers, stuntmen, sound technicians and casting directors who rarely get either.

The Saturday night show is dedicated to reality, variety and talk shows. Fittingly, the makers of “Saturday Night Live” are nominated for a dozen awards.

Game show hosts who typically appear on this night and are considered big stars include the recently retired Pat Sajak of “Wheel of Fortune” in their Emmy category, as well as Ken Jennings for “Jeopardy,” Steve Harvey for “Celebrity Family Feud” and Keke Palmer for “Password.”

The award for best narrator always attracts famous people – last year's winner was Barack Obama – and this year is no exception, with nominees including Bassett, Morgan Freeman, Paul Rudd and Octavia Spencer.

Sunday's show focuses on staged comedies and dramas.

“Shogun,” the FX series about politics in feudal Japan, leads all nominees this year with 25. Seventeen of those awards will be given out Sunday in craft categories that the series could easily dominate, including best period costume, best prosthetic makeup and best stunt performance.

“The Bear,” the FX series about a rowdy kitchen gang, leads the comedy category with 23 nominations. Fourteen of those will be announced Sunday, including nods for cinematography, hair and the all-star team of guest actors that includes Curtis, fellow Oscar winner Olivia Colman, Bob Odenkirk and Jon Bernthal.

Another Oscar winner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, is also nominated in the category of “Best Guest Actress in a Comedy” by Curtis and Colman for her performance in “Only Murders in the Building.”

Other nominated presenters include Hannah Waddingham, Jane Lynch and Mark Cuban.

Gosling is nominated in the guest actor category for his work as host of “Saturday Night Live,” as are two of the show's former hosts, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. Rudolph is nominated for four Emmys, three of which are in the Creative Arts category.

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