Dolly Parton Tribute, Noah Kahan Set for 78th Emmys — SkimNews
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- The 78th Emmys (Sept. 14, NBC/Peacock) will feature a Dolly Parton tribute — Parton died Aug. 25 at 80 — with producer Jesse Collins saying "we're holding it back" on details but calling it "a very beautiful tribute."
- Noah Kahan will perform "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" during the In Memoriam segment because, per Collins, Paul Simon is one of his favorite artists and "it was really about coming up with an arrangement that does the song justice."
- Mariska Hargitay, who won two Emmys over the weekend for her doc "My Mom Jayne," is hosting Monday's ceremony and told reporters her "Law & Order: SVU" co-star offered to let her try material at comedy clubs; she declined, saying she's "doing it my way."
- The telecast will also reunite the stars of Charlie's Angels for the show's 50th anniversary and pair Sarah Michelle Gellar with David Boreanaz to mark 30 years of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," while Michael J. Fox receives the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
- Five categories formerly part of the Creative Arts Emmys were moved to Night 2 to free up telecast time, with Television Academy chair Cris Abrego saying the extra room lets the show honor "some very iconic people" who have passed and give winners their own speeches.
- Under a new voting rule, variety series nominees need 90% "yes" votes to win outright — otherwise the top vote-getter takes it; Collins joked that if multiple nominees win, "Local news is going to be late."
- Monday's broadcast is the last under the current four-network wheel deal, with negotiations on a new arrangement (potentially a single network, a simulcast, or a restructured wheel) still unresolved; separately, the Television Academy and NATAS continue merger talks, with both sides exchanging envoys between L.A. and New York.
Why it matters: This is NBC's last Emmys under the existing four-broadcast-network rotation, so the telecast doubles as a test case for the kind of expanded runtime (with five categories shifted to Night 2) the Academy may need to sell to whatever network or streaming partner signs the next deal — and the Parton tribute, plus Michael J. Fox's humanitarian award, gives organizers an unusually heavy In Memoriam workload to fill that time with.
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