Emmy Awards' third attempt at 'show must go on'
By Lynn Elber
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The Emmy Awards are giving it another try.
Associated Press
The show, delayed twice by last month's terrorist attacks, has been rescheduled for Nov. 4 at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and CBS said Wednesday.
Bryce Zabel, president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, promises this year's ceremony will not be downbeat.
Ellen DeGeneres will remain as host. The Emmys won't have a satellite studio in New York City, as was planned for earlier this month.
Emmy organizers considered holding the show on a military base or studio lot, or canceling it outright before settling on the Shubert. They even checked with the White House for encouragement.
"Broadway is going on, the World Series is going on, football is going on," said CBS president Leslie Moonves. "So we are going on."
The awards show is likely to settle into a middle ground between the typical celebration of television's best work planned for Sept. 16 and the more sober tribute to victims and heroes of the terrorist attack that was organized for Oct. 7. The second show was postponed when bombing began in Afghanistan that day.
"This show will not be downbeat," insisted academy chairman Bryce Zabel.
Dress will be business attire, instead of black tie. A special unity dinner will be held at the Century Plaza Hotel.
Gary Smith, who has produced past Emmy telecasts, was brought in to replace Don Mischer as executive producer. Mischer had to bow out because he's producing the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Since the first delay, the television industry has been divided over whether the awards should be re-staged or dropped altogether.
"It just seems like the ship has sailed," said veteran producer Steven Bochco, creator of "NYPD Blue." The Emmys usually kicked off a fall television season, and now it's already a month old.
Moonves said he believed that 95 percent of people in the industry support the rescheduling.
The change will be costly. By moving from the 6,000-plus seat Shrine Auditorium to the Shubert, which holds only 1,800 people, the academy will have to refund tickets. It will lose money on the event, Zabel said.
Cancelling it altogether would cost even more, however.
The network stands to lose advertising dollars and a promotional platform for its programming, while the academy depends on the $3 million-plus network license fee and ticket sales for a large part of its annual budget.
The broadcast, scheduled for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hawai'i time, would conflict with a possible seventh and deciding game of the World Series. But Moonves noted that series go the duration only about 20 percent of the time.
