The TV Academy have delayed the first round of voting for the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards due to coronavirus concerns.
Reese Witherspoon at the Primetime Emmy Awards
Bosses at the TV Academy met remotely on Thursday (26.03.20) to discuss the impact the current global pandemic will have on the upcoming awards ceremony - which is due to be held in September - and have decided to push back the first round of voting by three weeks.
The Board of Governors have voted to shift the initial round of voting from June 15 to July 2, to accommodate the uncertainty in the month of May, when campaigning typically gets into full swing.
In lieu of a late June window for the first round of voting, nomination round voting will now run July 2 through July 13, with nominations announced on July 28.
And because of the voting delay, the entry deadline for submissions has also been pushed back until June 5.
Series still need to have premiered by May 31, but the required six-episode runs to qualify for the awards will have to either been broadcast or posted by June 30, giving companies an extra month to accommodate for production delays.
As of the time of writing, the September 20 date for the awards ceremony has not changed, as bosses are still hoping the virus will have slowed in its spread within the next few months.
The news comes after the Daytime Emmy Awards, which was due to take place in June, was cancelled altogether earlier this month.
Terry O'Reilly, the chairman of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, explained: "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.
"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."