Jennifer Aniston and Jimmy Kimmel ‘panic’ after setting fire to Emmys envelope

Jennifer Aniston and Jimmy Kimmel were taking no chances with the coronavirus pandemic when presenting the first award at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.

It is the first ever virtual show for the Emmys but Kimmel is hosting proceedings from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, albeit to an empty auditorium.

The nominees are anxiously waiting at home to hear whether they have won an award, dressing up (or down) as they deem appropriate.

For the first award announcement of the night, Kimmel was joined on stage by former Friends star Jennifer Aniston.

The pair are great friends and were taking no chances ahead of announcing Catherine O’Hara as the winner of outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for her role in Schitt’s Creek.

Extra precautions were needed and the presenting pair jokingly decided to “sanitise” the winner’s envelope, dousing it in Lysol spray before setting fire to it.

Spraying the envelope, Jen said: “That’s a little extreme, Jimmy.”

The host hit back: “You never know where these accountants’ hands have been. Now it goes into the basket and we light it up.”

The comedian told The Morning Show star they needed to “wait five seconds” for “the germs to be burned off.”

Jennifer then set to with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze.

What the pair didn’t expect though was that when Kimmel picked up the burned remains of the envelope with metal tongs, it reignited.

Off screen, a voice urged Jen and Jimmy to put the fire out as the joke almost backfired catastrophically.

Jennifer exclaimed “Oh shoot!” as she set the fire extinguisher off onto the flames again.

Jen is up for an award herself but has tough competition in the Best Actress category with last year’s winner, Jodie Comer, nominated again for her role in Killing Eve.

The Morning Show star is also joined by Olivia Colman (The Crown), Laura Linney (Ozark), Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) and Zendaya (Euphoria) on the nominations list.

HBO’s Watchmen is the most nominated show, with 26 while The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel follows closely behind with 20 nominations.

Ozark and Succession are both up for 18 nominations each with several Succession cast members nominated for their first Emmy, including Nicholas Braun, Kiernan Culkin, Sarah Snook, Harriet Walter and Matthew Macfadyen.

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