Emmys 2020 Will Be At Staples Center But Without Audience, Red Carpet

The Emmys 2020 is all set to take place and Jimmy Kimmel will host the event, but it will be very different from the previous years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 72nd Emmy Awards executive producers spoke with Variety on what to expect for this year's event. Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart, president of Done+Dusted, the company behind the production of the show for a third year in a row, shared that they are still building the event to make it live and safe.

"We shouldn’t lose sight that Emmys are prestigious awards, and we’re not giving them out for fun, we’re giving them out to reflect excellence," Stewart said.

"However, apart from that, it’s all available to be blown up, quite frankly. Because awards have been the same way for many, many years."

They also confirmed that Kimmel will host the event at Staples Center, but unlike the previous events, there will be no red carpet and live audience. Hudlin said they love working with the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host because they all want a live show.

"Jimmy loves to work live, and we love to work live," Hudlin said.

"This is a show that will still very much be, whenever and however possible, a live show. There’s a lot of challenges that come with doing a live show in a COVID environment. But we’re not running from those problems, we’re embracing them."

Normally, the Emmys take place across the street at the Microsoft Theater. However, this year they decided to go for Staples because it has a bigger size and it will enable the crew to work while practicing social distancing.

"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 explained.

"Because obviously the most important thing is safety first. The second part is, this show will need an unbelievable number of wiring connections in and out, because the nominees are not going to be there. So we’re going to take cameras to where they are. And the number of feeds that that requires is so massive that we need a facility like the Staples Center, which is used to having that much signal from reporters covering sports to handle the kind of in and outputs that it requires.”

For the event, they will not be using Zoom and will instead be using high-end cameras. Besides, there will be a person operating on the other end. They are aiming to have as many as 140 live feeds coming into the control room at Staples because they want to bring every nominee live onto the show.

However, they are still figuring out if the winners will get a chance to hold an Emmy while delivering their live acceptance speech.

"So often when people win the award, they dedicate it to their kids. Well, your kids can be right there with you. Maybe you’re accepting the award from their bedroom. This is a chance to reinvent every aspect of it. We really want people to think about that," Hudlin said.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston scored an Emmy nomination for her role on “The Morning Show.” The actress joked after learning about the nomination and said that she will figure out what mask to wear to the event.