So much so, that the night's
first presenter, comic actor-writer Seth Rogen,
joked that the site of hundreds of attendees
assembled unmasked in an enclosed space, with no
obvious sign of social distancing, made him
uncomfortable even though vaccinations were
mandated.
"Let me start by saying there are way too many
of us in this little room. What are we doing?"
Rogen, resplendent in a bright orange sport
jacket, nervously dead-panned within the first
few minutes of the show. "We're in a
hermetically sealed tent right now. I would not
have come to this."
From the opening hip-hop song-and-dance number,
"Just a Friend," performed as a vibrant
sing-along led by the show's host, Cedric the
Entertainer, organizers sought to project
entertainment value and glitz despite lingering
public health and travel restrictions.
Show producers sought in media interviews
beforehand to assure viewers that the 73rd
annual Emmys would, indeed, be conducted safely,
even as they worked to render the show with the
look of a glamorous, star-studded dinner party
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/royals-underdogs-friends-baby-yoda-its-time-emmys-2021-09-19.
Although attendees' faces were uncovered while
on camera, it was masks up during commercial
breaks - a routine many screen performers have
become accustomed to as they returned to work on
production sets in the midst of the pandemic.
The telecast even played COVID-19 safety for
laughs, as when comedian and presenter Ken Jeong
was shown being denied admission by a security
officer because he lacked sufficient proof of
vaccination.
'WE'RE ALL VAXED'
"Dude, I didn't get four booster shots to
present remotely," Jeong insisted to a security
guard during the gag, before announcing
"Saturday Night Live" as the winner for best
variety sketch series.
According to producers, and Cedric, the
precautions were very real.
"We're all vaxed," the host told viewers early
in the show. "I got vaxed, and I did not have a
reaction like Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend," a
reference to a headline-making but
unsubstantiated vaccination side-effects claim
made by the Trinidadian rap star.
The CBS network show was broadcast from an
air-conditioned tent outdoors at the L.A. Live
entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles
where, vaccinated and tested, 500 TV luminaries
sat at tables, rather than in the auditorium
setting normally packed with far more people for
such affairs.
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It marked one of the larger
in-person gatherings of celebrities for an
entertainment award show since the pandemic
began in early 2019, and was a far cry from last
year's largely virtual Zoom-like Emmy broadcast
hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
Seating for Sunday's event was limited to no
more than four tickets per nomination. And owing
to persistent travel limitations, many of the
Emmy contenders joined the proceedings by
satellite from London.
A
contingent of British nominees, including cast
members, producers, writers and directors of one
of the night's big winners, "The Crown,"
gathered at the Soho House nightclub in London,
eight hours ahead of the Pacific time zone,
making it a middle-of-the-night affair for them.
The broadcast repeatedly, and seamlessly cut to
London throughout the show as "The Crown,"
tracing the story of Britain's Queen Elizabeth
and the royal family, amassed awards for best
lead actor and lead actress in a drama and for
best drama series, among others.
Politics, which has increasingly emerged as a
Hollywood awards season motif, was largely
avoided.
One of the few notable exceptions came as CBS'
"The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert took the
stage to present the award for best supporting
actress in a drama - the winner was Gillian
Anderson for "The Crown" - and spoofed
California's recent gubernatorial recall
election.
Colbert's show later won an Emmy for its live
broadcast on Election Night 2020.
In one of the more memorable acceptance speeches
of the night, Renée Elise Goldsberry of
Broadway's history-themed musical hit
"Hamilton," which won for best pre-recorded
variety special, gave a nod to the key cultural
role television played during the pandemic,
while sounding a note of hope over the impending
return of Broadway.
"Television provided the platform for us to come
together and put on a show. Look around, look
around," she said, alluding to the lyrics of the
"Hamilton" song "That Would Be Enough." "The
curtains are going back up and the lights are
coming back on."
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Howard
Goller)
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