This year’s Emmy Awards will have no host to conduct the award presentation ceremony. The decision seems to be somewhat influenced by this year’s Academy Awards, which went without an emcee for the first time since 1989.
Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier on Wednesday said that the September Primetime Emmy Awards will not have a master of ceremonies.
“names on the board for the plum gig. Ultimately, they opted to concentrate on a large number of shows that are ending because skipping some of the bits and gimmicks that come with a host means that’s 15 to 20 minutes you can’t use to salute those shows,” he said.
“There will be an opening number; there will be entertainment,” Collier assured.
Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018 has attributed the uptick to the slightly shorter show, not to the lack of a host, on Monday.
“The fact that the ratings on the Oscars were higher is because the show was shorter,” Kimmel said.
“If they do the same thing this year, everyone will find that that was the case. But I personally remember Billy Crystal hosting and Steve Martin hosting, and for me, I wasn’t as interested in the acting awards as I was in seeing how these comedians that I liked would handle the show.”
The 2018 Emmys aired on NBC and were hosted by “Saturday Night Live” stars Michael Che and Colin Jost. The broadcast met with an all-time low in ratings.
The last time the Emmys went sans host was in 2003 when the broadcast also aired on Fox.
This year’s Primetime Emmy Awards will be handed out September 22.