2019 Emmys Will Forgo Host For First Time Since 2003
Libby Hill
Having a host for your awards show is so 2018.
That’s one takeaway from the Television Critics Association summer press tour where Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier confirmed that this year’s Primetime Emmy ceremony would go hostless for the first time since 2003. The decision comes after February’s well-received Academy Awards ceremony that eschewed a traditional host and boasted a decidedly shorter running time.
“We’ve been working hard at the Emmys, and the Emmys will not have a host this year,” Collier announced. The CEO went on to point out that a number of television’s most distinguished shows came to a close during the 2018-19 television season, including HBO’s dynamic duo “Game of Thrones” and “Veep,” as well as CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” and Fox’s own “Empire,” and that producers felt that ceremony time spent on a flashy song and dance opening number or recurring hosted bits could be better spent elsewhere.
“We will go hostless this year, and it will give us more time to honor those shows,” Collier said.
The choice to go without a host provides something of an out for a network that didn’t have many obvious options for in-house emcee talent, with Andy Samberg, who hosted Fox’s last Emmys ceremony, now employed by NBC. (Unless it wanted to turn to the literal “Last Man Standing” and finagle 1992 Emmy co-host and current Fox star Tim Allen into reprising the often thankless role.)
“It is a no-win type situation,” ABC star and former Emmy and Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel told journalists earlier this 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 fucking nightmare.”
Collier told reporters that while potential hosts were bandied about, and schedules sought during the process of planning the ceremony, producers ultimately thought that no host was the way to go.
Final-round Emmy voting is open from Thursday, Aug. 15 through Thursday, Aug. 29 at 10 p.m. PT. Winners for the 71st Primetime Emmys Creative Arts Awards will be announced the weekend of Sept. 14 and 15, with the Primetime Emmys ceremony broadcast live on Fox on Sunday, Sept. 22
For more on this year’s Emmy race, please head over to IndieWire’s Awards page, where you’ll find breaking news, Consider This profiles, and Emmy predictions in 21 categories.
