Here’s how the 2019 Emmys opened without a host
The TV awards show still found a way to put stars front and center in the first few minutes.
Following the path of the 2019 Oscars, the 2019 Emmy Awards were a host-less affair. But the award show’s producers still found a way to thrust a few of television’s biggest stars into the role, at least temporarily.
With the awards being broadcast on Fox, the first host of the night was the network’s longtime animated star, Homer Simpson. Unfortunately, he was quickly crushed by a falling piano, leading Anthony Anderson (“Black-ish”) to run onstage from the audience to try to save the show. After going backstage and stealing a few Emmys in the process, Anderson settled on the star of “Breaking Bad,” Bryan Cranston.
Cranston took the stage and struck a more serious tone, evoking the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon to demonstrate the power of television.
Watch Bryan Cranston (@BryanCranston) open up the first-ever host-less Emmy Awards https://t.co/2xLTkovrX2 #Emmys2019 pic.twitter.com/lPqDe1mFSZ
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 23, 2019
“Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and through the power of television, 600 million people and 53 million households walked with him. Not a bad rating,” Cranston said. “I was 13 years old, and sitting in front of the television on that day, it opened up a universe of possibilities. I could be anyone. I could go anywhere. Even Albuquerque.”
After a winking reference to the New Mexico setting of “Breaking Bad,” Cranston ran through quick shout-outs to “Game of Thrones,” “Stranger Things,” “Modern Family,” and “This is Us.”
“Fifty years later, television still transports us to faraway places like Winterfell, the Upside-Down, even Paradise,” Cranston said. “And it welcomes us into a family home where we laugh at the Dunphys and we cry with the Pearsons. … Television has never been bigger. Television has never mattered more. And television has never been this damn good.”
