The Emmys Will Not Have a Host This Year for the First Time Since 2003
The Emmy Awards are going hostless for the 2019 ceremony.
On Wednesday, Fox CEO Charlie Collier announced at the network’s Television Critics Association tour that the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, airing late next month, will not feature a host.
“It’s been a fascinating thing,” Collier said. “We’re so proud to host the Emmys. … Our job is how to assess how to elevate the program.”
The award show alternates between the four major networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC — each year. Fox last hosted in 2015.
Collier explained that they wanted to allow time to give proper send-offs to shows that are”saying goodbye to this year,” like Game of Thrones, Veep and Empire, which debuts its final season next month.
“We’ve had a lot of names on the board, but the conclusion was reached [by the producers] in this year when we’re highlighting so many shows that are going away, it would be a strategic use [of the Emmys] to celebrate the shows that are going away,” Collier explained.
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The exec was also asked if the decision was influenced by the Oscars going hostless earlier this year, which seemed to resonate well with viewers and prompt an uptick in ratings.
“Obviously that was a piece of information we gathered, looked at, I think it was certainly something we paid attention to,” he said. “This is a unique year for America’s favorite shows, and I think producers looked at that and [decided that] … giving them a way to be elevated was the right thing to do.”
The 2019 ceremony will mark the first time since 2003 — when the show also aired on Fox — that no one will be hosting TV’s biggest night. The Emmy’s previously went without hosts in 1998 and 1975.
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The most recent hosts have included Michael Che and Colin Jost (2018), Stephen Colbert (2017), Jimmy Kimmel (2016) and Andy Samberg (2015).
Jane Lynch is the most recent woman to have hosted the ceremony, when it also aired on Fox in 2011.
Nominations for this year’s ceremony were named on July 16 by D’Arcy Carden and Ken Jeong. Including its nominations for creative awards, Game of Thrones set a record with a whopping 32 nominations in a single year.
The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
