The Emmy Awards will be significantly delayed for the first time in more than two decades amid a dual strike that has virtually shut down Hollywood.
A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post that the 75th annual ceremony’s originally scheduled air date of Monday, Sept. 18 will push to a new date, yet to be announced.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the show has been rescheduled for January, although The Post could not confirm that. Variety previously reported that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which presents the awards, wanted to push them to November, while the broadcaster, Fox, preferred a longer delay.
The last time the Emmys aired after September was in 2001, when the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan pushed the show into November. The show wasn’t even postponed when the pandemic shut down Hollywood in 2020. It went virtual instead.
But this year’s ceremony had been widely expected to move because of a historic strike in the U.S. entertainment industry. Nearly all Hollywood writers stopped work in May, and tens of thousands of TV and film actors joined them in July, barely two days after the Emmy nominees were announced. The striking actors are barred by their union not only from working for major studios, but from promoting films or appearing in award shows.