With less than a month to go before the Primetime Emmys, telecast producers have yet to build the show and figure out how to make it as live – and safe – as possible. And at the same time, they promise that they do not intend to do ‘Emmys Light’.
“We must not lose sight of the fact that Emmys are prestigious awards, and we do not pretend to be fun, we pretend to reflect exhibition,” said Done + Dusted president Ian Stewart, whose company handles the production on the pre-show. third year in a row. ‘Apart from that, though, it’s all available to blow up, honestly. Because prices have been the same way for many, many years. ”
Variation recently spoke with 72nd Emmy Awards executive producers Reginald Hudlin and Stewart, who for the first time revealed what this year’s ceremony will look like. Host Jimmy Kimmel will anchor the Emmys from a stage in the Staples Center, but there will be no audience and no red carpet.
“Jimmy loves working, and we love working live,” Hudlin said. “This is a show that will still be a lot, whenever and however possible, a live show. There are many challenges that come with doing a live show in a COVID environment. But we do not run from those problems, we embrace them. ”
The Emmys usually take place across the street at the Microsoft Theater, but Staples (like the Microsoft, owned by AEG) was chosen because of the sheer size of the facility.
“One is that it’s so large that the crew can work safely under COVID-safe protocols and be at the appropriate distance from each other,” Hudlin said. ‘Because safety is obviously the most important thing first. The second part is, this show will require an incredible number of cable connections in and out, because the nominees will not be there. That we will take cameras where they are. And the number of feeds it requires is so massive that we need a facility like the Staples Center, which is accustomed to having so many signals from reporters covering sports to handle the kind of inputs and outputs it requires . “
The manufacturers need that capacity because of an ambitious plan they have created for professional cameras and, if possible, camera operators stationed where each nominee sits. (For programs, one of the nominated producers will be chosen to serve as the show’s camera representative.) That’s as many as 140 live feeds coming into the control room at Staples.
“This will all depend on the comfort level of the people at the other end, but we have to look and look for them,” Stewart said. ‘They might be at home, they might be in the garden, maybe in a hotel, they might be standing on the side of the street. It does not really matter where they feel comfortable. But we want every nominee we can bring logistics to live in the show. ”
In comparison, the producers of the Creative Night Emmys (Sept. 14-17 and 19) ask all nominees to send a pre-tap acceptance speech, but only the winner’s tank will air. In this case, Hudlin, Stewart and team want to be as live as possible, adding an extra layer of technical issues. The producers said they were ready to address various concerns of nominees, especially when it comes to sending crew. In some cases, they may agree to have a family member in the COVID bubble of a nominee to operate the broadcast camera. The goal is to prevent platforms like Skype, Facetime or Zoom on their laptops or phones.
“We’re not trying to make the Zoomies, we’re trying to make the Emmys,” Stewart said. ‘So one of the things we try to do is get the kit with the highest end, where that person is at what level of comfort they have. The best thing for us is to have very high quality cameras, with a person operating them in one of the houses or wherever they are. That is our starting point. ”
But the producers are aware that some nominees may be in a strict quarantine if they prepare themselves for production.
“There will be people who are logistical or whatever, we can not do this,” Stewart said. “We will come up with other solutions. But our premise is nothing technological that people have seen before. ”
Then there are other challenges they still face, such as the prize or the chance to hold an Emmy while giving their live acceptance speech. (One idea, to win cars to the houses of the prize to carve them an Emmy statue, was eventually mixed.)
“There are nominees who live in Los Angeles, who live in London, who live in Berlin and Tel Aviv, so we search through all those questions and all those challenges and try it. to find out, ”Hudlin said. ‘But again, that comes down to what the level of comfort of people is. Do you want someone to ring your bell? We come up with many interesting possible solutions. And one of the things we work on in terms of the show is that not everything has to be the same. We want to have a lot of variation and experimentation within the show. Once you say that the world is your studio, you can do some innovative things. ”
Stewart said variation also extends to the nominees who will be seen on camera: Some can dress best in their designer, while others sport pajamas. “If you want to be in your sweats on your couch, that’s fine too,” he said. ‘It will be much more casual, much more fun, because we are more together. It will go where it goes. We hope really well, but I can not sit here and say that it will go 100% perfectly, because no one has ever done it before. ”
Hudlin added: “As often as people win that they give away prizes, they dedicate it to their children. Well, your kids can be right there. Maybe you accept the price from her bedroom. This is an opportunity to reinvent all aspects of it. We really want people to think about it. ”
Among other elements for the show, the producers are considering having some attendees at the Staples Center, while others will be at a distance. They also look at possible musical numbers by great artists, and how they can replace the usual orchestra that people play on and off stage. And they intend to give viewers a behind – the – scenes glimpse of how they are capturing a live event in such an unusual way.
“If you watch the show, you’ll see what we do and why we do it,” Hudlin said. ‘We think this is actually part of the excitement of looking at what we do. We will be very transparent about what happens and why. “
Stewart said this year’s ceremony would focus on the fact that television has been a bit of a lifeline and has been widespread for people sitting at home during these quarantine times.
“Every person has sat and sought comfort with their TV,” Stewart said. ‘That we want to try to reflect that, to celebrate that and the fact that we are all together now.
Of course, Hudlin and Stewart said they also relied on host and fellow executive producer Kimmel, a live TV veteran who spent a good chunk of this year figuring out how to do a virtual show these days. . “I’ve done my whole life live, but I do not have a tenth of his instinct for it,” Stewart said.
An element that the producers were early on with was the idea of having some sort of actual audience in the Staples Center. “It’s still too dangerous, especially in Los Angeles at the moment, to place people nearby,” Stewart said. Hudlin added: “Award shows are typically designed for theatrical setting, a lot of seats and people watching and doing you to that audience. Once you remove the audience, it frees up how you think about how you show everything. “
The decision to cancel the red carpet, and the traditional arrival in advance, came after they brought nominees to the Staples Center. After early discussions on how to reinvent the red carpet as a virtual experience, the producers decided that they should just focus on the main ceremony instead. “Ultimately, it felt like we needed to stick to what’s on our plate and do that,” Hudlin said.
And that includes inventing the intricate logistics of having a camera on 140 different nominees around the world. ‘Normally you concentrate on what goes out of your location. Here, before we can even work something out, we need to get 120-140 things in, ”Stewart said. ‘And also there are people at the end of those feeds. We do not want people to be on edge, we want them to feel comfortable to come in and have fun. ”
The producers have already sent one letter to nominees indicating how the Emmys can go live from their home, and Hudlin said much more detailed information would be sent out soon.
Hudlin and Stewart said the producers received full support from the Academy of Television and ABC as they set out to create this new version of an Emmy broadcast. But Stewart does have one gripe: He hopes the award-winning accountants will bend the rules and give producers an early look at the award winners to plan ahead.
“That was shut down,” he said. “We thought this year might be an extraordinary situation, but unfortunately there is no room for it. We will find it like everyone else. Whatever the right way to do it, it’s just annoying. ”
Kimmel, Hudlin and Stewart will join Done + Dusted’s Guy Carrington and David Jammy as executive producers, while the company directs Hamish Hamilton. The TV Academy made history this year by tapping into Hudlin, whose credits include the 2016 Oscars, as the Emmys’ first-ever Black executive producer.
“It was no brainer,” Stewart said. ‘We need every voice in this room. I’m a naked male skinny boy, I do not speak for everyone in America and we want to make sure we are. You always want to build a team that has everything in it, and Reggie brings us so much blood skills that we do not have. And also, we’re going to steal his ideas, which was really cool for the future. ”
Hudlin made headlines just this weekend by opening at DC FanDome that he helped revive the Milestone Comics impression and that a “Static Shock” movie is in the works. Hudlin, who has earned an Emmy nomination for producing the Oscars, and whose awards show credit also includes executive production of the NAACP Image Awards for nearly a decade, said he enjoyed the challenge this year. to find out the Emmy telecast.
“We start every day by reinventing the show,” Hudlin says. ‘And then we rip it all down and then we start again the next day. I sound like I’m kidding, but I’m kind of not. You may be wondering, ‘Reggie, are you not very close to being seen for sure?’ Yes, we know! “
