So much so that the night’s first presenter, comic actor-writer Seth Rogen, joked that the sight of hundreds of attendees assembled unmasked in an enclosed space, with no obvious sign of social distancing, made him uncomfortable even though vaccinations were mandated.
“Let me start by saying there are way too many of us in this little room. What are we doing?” Rogen, resplendent in a bright orange sport jacket, nervously deadpanned within the first few minutes of the show. “We’re in a hermetically sealed tent right now. I would not have come to this.”
From the opening hip-hop song-and-dance number, “Just a Friend”, performed as a vibrant singalong led by the show’s host, Cedric the Entertainer, organisers sought to project entertainment value and glitz despite lingering public health and travel restrictions.
Show producers sought in media interviews beforehand to assure viewers that the 73rd annual Emmys would, indeed, be conducted safely, even as they worked to render the show with the look of a glamorous, star-studded dinner party.
Although attendees’ faces were uncovered while on camera, it was masks up during commercial breaks – a routine many screen performers have become accustomed to as they returned to work on production sets in the midst of the pandemic.
The telecast even played Covid-19 safety for laughs, as when comedian and presenter Ken Jeong was shown being denied admission by a security officer because he lacked sufficient proof of vaccination.
“Dude, I didn’t get four booster shots to present remotely,” Jeong insisted to a security guard during the gag, before announcing “Saturday Night Live” as the winner for best variety sketch series.
According to producers and Cedric, the precautions were very real.
“We’re all vaxxed,” the host told viewers early in the show. “I got vaxxed, and I did not have a reaction like Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend” – a reference to a headline-making but unsubstantiated vaccination side-effects claim made by the Trinidadian rap star.
The CBS network show was broadcast from an air-conditioned tent outdoors at the LA Live entertainment complex where, vaccinated and tested, 500 TV luminaries sat at tables, rather than in the auditorium setting normally packed with far more people for such affairs.
It marked one of the larger in-person gatherings of celebrities for an entertainment award show since the pandemic began and was a far cry from last year’s largely virtual Zoom-like Emmy broadcast hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.