The 74th Tony Awards Will Air on 26 September
Yesterday, we finally got an update on the much delayed 74th Tony Awards. This ceremony will recognize new Broadway productions that opened between May 2019 and March 2020, right when the Broadway shut down happened due to Covid-19 quarantine. The ceremony will air in two parts on 26 September. What a lovely early birthday gift for me.
CBS and Paramount+ will collaborate on the two-part ceremony. Paramount+ is going to air most of the actual awards ceremony on the new streaming service from 7-9pm EDT. CBS will air The Tony Awards Presents: Broadway’s Back! from 9-11pm. This special will feature performances from Best Musical nominees Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge!, and Tina, as well as performances from yet to be named Broadway stars and returning shows. The CBS ceremony will also announce the winners of Best Play, Best Musical, and Best Revival of a Play; there is no Best Revival of a Musical category as none had officially opened before the shutdown.
I’m excited for the format shift. Now is the time to try to shake up the system and bring more eyes back to live theatre. Broadway is not the be-all-and-end-all of live theatre, but it is the market with the largest platform to convince audiences to return. A celebration of what makes theatre great will only help as these expensive properties try to rebuild momentum after being shut down for 18 months.
Separating out awards to another special isn’t unprecedented, either. PBS used to team up with CBS to host the creative arts awards before the official Tonys telecast. This separate broadcast actually cared about showing off categories like lighting, set design, and costumes in creative ways. There were often interviews, backstage tours, and (scandalous, I know) full speeches aired by people who aren’t actors, directors, or top 40 musicians in full on TV. This gave the CBS ceremony more time to show off the nominated performers and shows without having to relegate entire categories to commercial breaks and quickly-edited montages.
The only downside here is accessibility. Paramount+ is another new streaming service with exclusive programming and a running monthly cost. They are heavily investing in new programs and acquisitions, such as the just-announced RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 airing exclusively on the platform. The network is taking the Hulu approach, meaning there’s a $5.99 tier for watching with ads and a $9.99 tier for watching without ads. Stack that on top of your Hulu, your Netflix, your Amazon Prime, and any other service (have you heard the good word of Shudder, the best platform to watch horror on?) and you’re starting to rival a monthly cable bill cost for access to all these new shows and specials.
It goes the other way, too. Not everyone has cable at all anymore. Some have fully cut the cord to go ala carte with all the different subscription services. That means those people could watch half the ceremony, never getting a chance to see the shows perform or the winners of the last three categories. CBS is notoriously stingy with actually putting up Tony Awards clips on their website or YouTube. It’s an “act fast” scenario as I’ve seen official videos on their website pulled within 24 hours of the awards airing before.
Splitting the broadcast between two networks instead of airing it on both is a choice. We’ll see.
I, for one, am just excited to see Jeremy O. Harris’ brilliant Slave Play finally get its accolades 11 months after receiving a record-breaking 12 nominations for a stageplay.
