The 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards are taking a page out of the ol' Oscars playbook for the upcoming show. The September ceremony will not have a host, a rare break with tradition in favor of trying out something new this year. What is the plan, then, to fill in the gaps with no host to keep the show running?

Well, the onus will likely be put on the shoulders of Emmys presenters to make sure everyone is having a good time throughout the evening. That's the implication, anyway, if the Emmy Awards forgo a host. But, as TV Line reports, a creative decision was also made to return focus to the nominated shows by finding ways to honor their achievements and spotlight what they have delivered to the world of television. Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier confirmed this at the Television Critics Association summer press tour earlier this week, commenting,

The Emmys will not have a host this year. It’s our job to assess how to elevate the program in the year we’re lucky enough to broadcast it. And what’s interesting about this year, to me, is how many amazing shows we’re saying goodbye to. You’ve got obviously Game of Thrones… and Veep and Big Bang Theory.

Collier continued, explaining,

"If you have a host and an opening number, that’s 15, 20 minutes you can’t use to salute the shows. I look at the honor that is broadcasting the Emmys — we’re excited to do it — and our production team… really have had to balance those tradeoffs. We will go host-less this year. I think it will give us more time to honor those shows."

The Fox exec went on to note that a number of possible hosts were discussed during internal conversations but no formal offers were made. It's unclear how the creative decision to go from no host to spotlighting shows was made, but it's a bold choice to make. This is an awards show honoring the best in television so why not spend the entire ceremony doing that? Radical, I know, but sensible, too.

This is a year where HBO is a clear leader, as Game of Thrones leads with a record 32 nominations while Barry and Succession have also netted multiple nominations. Other notable contenders include Killing Eve for BBC America, Russian Doll for Netflix, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for Amazon Studios, and Fleabag, also for Amazon and already cleaning up nicely with a few recent honors handed out at the 2019 TCA Awards.

There's no word yet on who will be presenting this year. The 2019 Emmys will air on Sunday, September 22 at 8/7c on Fox.

game-of-thrones-finale-bran-sansa-arya
Image via HBO
succession-season-2-kendall-shiv
Image via HBO
killing-eve-season-2-recap
Image via BBC America