If you were planning to sit in front of your television on September 18th and watch the Primetime Emmy Awards your schedule has now freed up. With both the WGA and SAG strikes still in effect and parties not even at the negotiating table (something you can blame the studios and networks for), it is logistically impossible for the 75th Emmy Awards to occur on that date. The Television Academy has been quiet publicly but has officially told vendors, producers, and others involved in the telecast it will be moving. Frankly, that was expected and rumored for weeks. The question now is, when?
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According to Variety, there is now a debate as to when to push the ceremony. The Television Academy would prefer to have the ceremony in November. FOX, one of four rotating networks that broadcast the Emmys, wants to schedule it sometime in January. The latter date would put the Emmys in the middle of the Oscars FYC awards season (not necessarily a bad thing) and in the same time period as the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards (if that even matters). It would also possibly occur in the middle of the 40th anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival. Most of the guild awards for 2024 (and the Grammy Awards for that matter) will not occur until February, so the show is not in danger of seeming truly out of place unless the strikes continue beyond the end of the year. And if that is occurring, well, Hollywood has even bigger fundamental issues to deal with (which it clearly does already).
This change also affects the Creative Arts Ceremonies which were scheduled for Sept. 9 and 10. Rescheduling those two events may prove to be one of the more difficult logistically than the main ceremony for the Television Academy.
Emmy voting is still moving forward, however, with members set to cast their ballots between August 17 and August 28.
While sister awards telecasts the Oscars, Tonys, and Grammys were dramatically affected by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the Emmys were able to move forward without a delay. This would be the first time the ceremony was rescheduled since 2001 after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. That year saw the telecast pushed twice, finally airing in a smaller ceremony on Nov. 4.
The Television Academy is expected to make a formal announcement regarding the new date early next month.
