THE Primetime Emmy Awards for television, one of the biggest events on the showbusiness calendar, is going ahead in September as planned with Jimmy Kimmel as host, broadcaster ABC said Tuesday.

ABC, part of Walt Disney Co., gave no details for how the Sept. 20 show, which hands out the highest honors in television, would be produced in an era when the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of multiple live events.

“I don’t know where we will do this or how we will do this or even why we are doing this, but we are doing it and I am hosting it,” Kimmel said in a statement.

The Emmy Awards are usually held live in Los Angeles in front of an audience of A-list stars and preceded by a red carpet. It had been unclear whether the ceremony would go ahead this year because of restrictions on large gatherings and social distancing requirements.

Tuesday’s statement said details of how the show will be produced would be announced soon. Scenarios under consideration include a completely virtual event or a combination of in-person elements, pre-recorded segments and online appearances, according to Hollywood trade publication Variety.

The coronavirus epidemic shut down production of television shows and movies around the world in mid-March and led to the cancellation of film festivals and live concerts.

On Monday, it was announced that the 2021 Oscars ceremony will be moved to April from February due to the havoc caused in the movie industry by the pandemic.

The ceremony for film’s highest honors will take place April 25, 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement. It had originally been scheduled for Feb. 28.

The Academy also extended the deadline by which movies must be released in order to be eligible for an Oscar nomination to Feb. 28, 2021, from Dec. 31, 2020.

It was only the fourth time in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards that the date has been changed: in 1938, due to floods in Los Angeles, in 1968 because of the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1981 after the attempted assassination of then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

The new date for the Oscars is expected to prompt the Golden Globes and other award shows to also reschedule their events.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) on Monday said it was shifting its film awards ceremony to April 11 from Feb. 14, 2021.

(SD-Agencies)