The Trump-bashing Tony Awards — which hit a record low in ratings in 2019 — will become the first major awards show to move to streaming after finally setting a date for September 26, after being postponed due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Broadway’s 74th Tony Awards will be a streaming-only 2-hour event, available on exclusively CBS’ Paramount+ platform, and will be immediately followed by a two-hour concert event broadcast on CBS, according to a report by Deadline.
The CBS broadcast portion of the four-hour event, titled, The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!, will include live presentations of just three Tony Awards: Best Play, Best Revival of a Play, and Best Musical.
“With the combined power of CBS and Paramount+, the show will honor this year’s Tony Award nominees and winners in a new format unlike any other, and celebrate the iconic music, memorable performances and unique personalities that make Broadway so special,” said Jack Sussman, executive Vice President, Specials, Music, Live Events and Alternative Programming at CBS Entertainment.
Actor Robert De Niro made headlines in 2018 when he launched into a profanity-filled anti-Trump rant from Tony Awards stage.
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The Tony Awards appears to be the first major awards show to move to streaming after having been postponed for over a year due to the Wuhan virus, and Broadway’s subsequent shutdown.
“After this devastating past year and a half for our industry, our city and for the entire world, we are excited to finally be able to celebrate the return of Broadway, our Tony Award nominees and winners in this new and exciting format,” Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, said in a joint statement.
“There is nothing that compares to the magic of live theater — and we are thrilled to be able to share its celebratory return and the incredible talent and artistry of the abbreviated 2019-2020 season with theatre fans everywhere,” St. Martin and Hitchens added.
The Broadway League and American Theatre Wing are the two organizations that present the Tony Awards.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram
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