Emmy Awards 2019 won’t have a host: ‘It’s the right thing to do’
One of the most high-profile gigs in showbiz has become all but obsolete.
Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier announced Wednesday that the 2019 prime-time Emmy Awards broadcast will go host-less. Instead, the network is looking to overhaul the awards ceremony in its 71st year.
Following in the footsteps of the 2019 Oscars telecast, Emmy producers hope the absence of a host will give them more opportunities to innovate new elements, and give proper attention to several acclaimed shows whose series ended this year, particularly “The Big Bang Theory” and “Game of Thrones,” which shattered records with 32 nominations last year.
This year also brings milestones to a few other iconic shows: the 30th anniversaries of “Seinfeld” and “Beverly Hills, 90210,” which has a re-boot on the way, and 25th anniversaries of “Friends” and “ER.” Insiders expect Emmy producers will not miss a chance to highlight these fan-favorite shows.
“Our job is to assess how to elevate the program in the year we’re lucky enough to broadcast it,” said Collier at the Television Critics Association press tour. “What’s interesting to me this year is how many shows we’re saying goodbye to. You have to look at the trade off. If you have a host and an opening number, that’s 15-20 minutes that you don’t have to salute the shows.”
Collier says that many big names in Hollywood were considered for the role, but producers ultimately decided they had too much ground to cover without worrying about a host.
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“Spending more time on those shows and giving them a way to be elevated was the right thing to do,” he said.
Last year’s Emmys saw their lowest ratings in history with just 10.2 million viewers, a 10% dip since 2018. But Collier hopes the success of this year’s no-host Academy Awards, which saw a 12% increase in viewership since the year prior, with just shy of 30 million watching, may be an indicator that the Emmys telecast can recover.
Past hosts have recently come out to say that the awards host job is not all it’s cracked up to be.
“It is a no-win type situation,” Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted both the Emmys and Oscars, told reporters at a press conference last week. “It’s a very difficult job, and even when it seems like it was great, you then go home and go, like, ‘Oh, some people didn’t think it was great.’ So if you don’t care about what people say, I think it’s a good gig. I do. So, for me, it’s kind of a f-king nightmare.”
With many lamenting their decision to nix an MC, some joke that a host isn’t the only detail the Emmys will miss.
Tweeted one user, “They won’t have an accurate representation of half the good shows/actors either.”
Others say getting rid of a host doesn’t go far enough and would be happy to scrap the whole ceremony.
“Why don’t they just cancel the whole thing,” asks one exasperated viewer on Twitter. “It’s a bunch of entitled celebs fluffing each other and winning awards.”
The Emmys airs Sunday, Sept. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Fox.
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