Daytime Emmys Ceremony Canceled Amid Coronavirus Crisis

Patrick Hipes
·3 min read

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The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said Thursday that its 47th annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony set for June in Pasadena has been canceled.

“Given our concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided that we will not be staging the 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Pasadena this coming June,” NATAS chairman Terry O’Reilly said today. “As there are so many unknowns right now with the flow of information changing on a daily, almost hourly, basis, it would simply be irresponsible to move forward with our annual celebration of excellence in daytime television at this time.”

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The move comes after NATAS announced it would postpone its annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and its Sports Emmy Awards due to the coronavirus outbreak. That was Friday; so much has changed since then in the U.S. and around the world as the pandemic has grown.

Daytime Emmy Awards executive director Brent Stanton said that as far as moving forward with the annual awards, “Judging continues, and we look forward to announcing our incredibly talented nominees later this spring. We are working on some interesting alternative ideas for how to best recognize the honorees later this year and will share more details in the weeks ahead.”

The organization’s entry deadline for the 2020 awards was January 15, meaning all shows would be represented in whatever future form the awards would take.

NATAS was in the midst of some revamps of the Daytime Emmys. The upcoming ceremony was to be divided into three separate shows June 12-14 at the Pasadena Convention Center, much like the Primetime Emmys and the two-night Creative Arts Emmys. Three new categories were added — Outstanding Young Adult Program, Outstanding Picture Editing for an Animated Program, and Outstanding Special Effects Costumes, Makeup and Hairstyling — and the Younger Actor and Younger Actress in a Drama Series categories have been combined into a singular non-gendered Younger Performer in a Drama Series.

“These were extremely difficult decisions to make, but at the end of the day the health and safety of our event attendees and staff must remain our paramount concern,” NATAS president and CEO Adam Sharp said of today’s decision. “We are closely monitoring public heath authorities’ guidance, seeking feedback from our awards communities, and evaluating the flexibility of our venue and production partners as we plan for the future in this unprecedented context.”

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