NATAS EXEC ON DAYTIME EMMYS’ FUTURE
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Daytime Emmy ceremony was canceled, and the awards will instead be handed out in a virtual celebration to be held later this year.
Explains National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences President Adam Sharp, “I think the Daytime Emmys was the most difficult [of the various Emmys] to proceed with in this environment of all our ceremonies in part because it is the biggest. Our plans for this year had been a three-night [celebration] at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. It would have had more than a thousand people packed into a room each of those three nights. And it became clear relatively early [in the pandemic] that it would not be appropriate to do that in early June as we had planned.”
Originally, NATAS explored simply postponing the awards, “But working with the venue, frankly, there were no dates available in the fall where we would be able to do that same event, so that’s why Daytime was the first one where we announced that it would be postponed, but also take some sort of different form. It started becoming more and more clear that the likelihood of even being allowed to have a thousand people in a room this year was waning. And then, talking to the community, it was clear that there would be a lag between the time that the government says, ‘You are allowed,’ and people actually doing it. I don’t think that anyone was sort of planning on rushing for the doors of the auditorium the moment the government said we could. We realized, ‘We can put that spotlight on our talent and recognize the creators of our community in ways other than a big party and an auditorium show.’ ”
Sharp says that canceling
the traditional ceremony “was a difficult decision to make, and was absolutely done with a heavy heart. Certainly, our desire was to do it in person. This is oftentimes the one night where our entire community comes together; this is the annual reunion. We know how much people cherish not just the onstage bit of passing out trophies, but the opportunity to see their peers and colleagues and past colleagues and have that celebration of our community together. It is really painful to give that up, as I think a lot of us have been pained by this loss of social interaction these last few months.”
Sharp concedes that “there’s also, certainly, a financial component. We are a nonprofit organization, but we do rely on different revenue streams to keep the lights on, and one of those is tickets to these events. So, there’s even the business incentive, if you will, to make sure these events happen. But at the end of the day, the health and safety of our community comes first. That was paramount, and the driver of the decision. Yes, we will take a substantial loss this year because of this decision, but it’s the right move to make for the community.”
Sharp and the other organizers of the Daytime Emmys are working hard to finalize a date for the virtual awards, which may be as early as this summer. “We have extended our judging window to accommodate judges during this COVID-19 period, but our nominations will probably be coming out in [a few] weeks,” he notes. As for what the re-imagined ceremony will look like, Sharp says, “That’s still being planned. A lot of it won’t come together until after the nominations are out. It is going to be a conversation with a lot of the nominees around what they’re up for, what are they available to do.”
Sharp and his team are embracing the opportunity to meet the creative challenge of mounting the Emmys’ first virtual ceremony. “I think what you will see from us is very much what you’ve seen from the [entertainment] community as a whole: a lot of experimentation,” he shares. “I don’t think you’re going to see us come up with one format of, ‘This is what a virtual award show looks like,’ and just rerun that; I think you’ll see us try different things. It may be that at the end of it, people look back and say, ‘What you did for these categories was awesome, what you did for these categories we’d rather forget, and everysomewhere thing else is in between.’ But I’m trycreative ing to see this as a opportunity to innovate and experiment at a scale we problong ably haven’t had in a time and may not have again in a long time.
“The same way as a lot of the shows in our community have used this as an opportunity to be creative and innovate their programming, we hope to go in with the same positive spirit as they have,” he continues. “There’s great content coming out that would not have been there were it not for COVID-19. I’d like to end this year with some people looking back on our [awards] shows saying that we contributed to that great content in dark times. I think that’s really where we stand.”
Sharp is cautiously optimistic that the Daytime Emmys will return to an inperson format in 2021. “I am hopeful,” he says. “We have contracted venues for all our events in 2021. But at the same time, we are realistic and preparing our contingencies should those not be possible. Right now, sort of Plan A, if you will, is virtual shows this year, back to in-person shows next year. If this experience has taught us anything, it is to make sure Plan B and Plan C are also queued up! The ultimate hope, of course, is that we return to a full-scale event and come back bigger and better than ever.”
“At the end of the day, the health and safety of our community comes first.”