‘We are heavily relying on Wi-Fi’: Host Jimmy Kimmel on Emmys going virtual

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will emcee the 72nd edition of the Primetime Emmy Awards that will take place virtually on September 20. The 52-year-old says that he will rely completely on strong Wi-Fi as camera feeds are beamed into nominees’ homes all around the world.

“What could go wrong?” he jokes in a telephonic interview with Hollywoodreporter.com. Kimmel will emcee the event from Staples Center in Los Angeles without an audience.

“I was actually asked to host them well before the pandemic. So I said, “Yes, I would like to do that. That would be a fun thing to do.” And then I learned that I was mistaken. (Laughs),” said Kimmel when asked what made him say yes to host the Emmys in the middle of a pandemic.

How much are you regretting that yes right about now?

“No, I don’t really have regrets about it — at the very least it will be interesting. Maybe it’s one of those things we’ll look back on in the inevitable CNN two-hour-long documentary about the year 2020,” he said.

He also says that “If something happens technically, I will be touching upon all the skills I’ve acquired over the course of my life.”

“ I know one magic trick. I can kind of juggle. I guess I could draw caricatures of the crew. (Laughs.) We are heavily relying on Wi-Fi for this Emmys — more than any show ever has before,” he said.

The Emmys — television’s equivalent of the Oscars — will be the first major awards show in Hollywood since the coronavirus crisis began.

In the letter sent to select nominees and the contents of which were confirmed to AFP by an Academy spokesman, organizers said they were forced to make the tough decision to hold the ceremony online given the circumstances. The event will broadcast on ABC.

One of the best moments of any awards show is the standing ovation for a long-overdue winner, something that won’t be possible in virtual presentation but the host says that “…there’s only one way available to us, and that is, since we’ll be seeing them in their homes, we will get to see the real warmth from the real people who really love them rather than the people who don’t want to be caught on television not standing for Bob Newhart.”

But did he enjoy rethinking what the show could look like?

To which he answered hollywoodreporter.com, “I wouldn’t say I’ve enjoyed it. (Laughs.) I don’t enjoy anything that involves a Zoom meeting. Really, the biggest challenge was that for months we didn’t know where we were going to do the show. And now it seems obvious that we wouldn’t have an audience, but it wasn’t obvious three months ago.

“We didn’t know, and not knowing where you’re going to make it hard to plan for anything. Not being able to pre-tape limits you as well. But I think what we found from watching the late-night shows during this time is that you do find things that are better when you’re handcuffed.”

HBO’s “Watchmen,” an innovative reimagining of a superhero graphic novel that tackled racism in America, topped the nominations for this year’s Emmy Awards with 26 nods.

Perennial Amazon hit “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” topped among the comedies with 20 nominations, followed by dark dramas “Ozark” and “Succession” with 18 nominations each.

Netflix dominated with a whopping 160 nominations — a new record for a single platform — on the strength of a powerhouse lineup that includes “Ozark” and “The Crown.”