While nominations have yet to be announced for “The 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” one thing is for sure: the ceremony has officially been canceled due to coronavirus concerns. The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is working on alternative means to honor the eventual nominees at a later date.
“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,” said NATAS Chairman, Terry O’Reilly, in a statement. “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.”
“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,” said Adam Sharp, President & CEO, NATAS. “We are closely monitoring public health 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.”
“While we realize this is disappointing, this does not mean we will not be celebrating the work selected for recognition in our Awards judging processes,” said Brent Stanton, Executive Director, Daytime Emmy 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.”
This decision comes after NATAS announced it would postpone both its annual Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards (at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas) and its Sports Emmy® Awards (at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City) due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus.
Previously NATAS announced that the annual telecast would be broken up into three separate shows to take place the weekend of June 12-14, 2020 at the Pasadena Convention Center, similar to how the Television Academy handles the Primetime Emmys and its two-night Creative Arts ceremonies. Categories added this year include Outstanding Young Adult Program, Outstanding Picture Editing for an Animated Program, and Outstanding Special Effects Costumes, Makeup and Hairstyling. Additionally, the Younger Actor and Younger Actress in a Drama Series categories were been combined into a singular non-gendered Younger Performer in a Drama Series.