Impact Of The COVID-19 Pandemic On Television In The United States

Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the television industry. Its effects have been particularly felt in the United States, mirroring its impacts across all arts sectors.

Upon the arrival of the pandemic in the United States, almost all television entertainment production ceased, barring those capable of being produced remotely and/or with reduced personnel. This included new series and special episodes of existing series that were specifically designed around remote/at-home production, or otherwise set during the pandemic.

By June, some productions resumed after implementing social distancing guidelines, quarantine measures, and other safety protocols in accordance with relevant health orders and protocols agreed upon by the television industry.

The pandemic has been the most impactful shutdown on the American television industry since the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, which disrupted nearly all scripted and daily talk show television production.

Scripted programming

Initial suspension of production

The pandemic disrupted the production of many scripted television series. On March 10, 2020, Fox announced that a production member of the upcoming show ''NeXt'' had tested positive for the Coronavirus. Production of the series was completed one week before the announcement. Furthermore, the Disney+ series ''The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'' suspended its international production in Prague, where a week of filming was set aside. Filming continued in Atlanta until filming statewide was eventually suspended two weeks later.

On March 12, Universal Television delayed shooting for the shows ''Russian Doll'', ''Rutherford Falls'', and '' Little America''. A few hours later, NBCUniversal announced that 35 additional shows would suspend production, including unscripted shows. Inevitably, programs such as the three series of the ''Chicago'' franchise as well as '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', ''FBI'', ''New Amsterdam'', and '' Superstore'' had their productions suspended. ''Superstore'' had to close its fifth season with its 21st episode, which was the last to be produced prior to shutdown, despite their 22-episode order. Furthermore, it was revealed that the production of ''Carnival Row'' had been suspended. ''Carnival Row'' was filming in Prague at the time of the production shutdown. The same day, Netflix announced that production on the final season of ''Grace and Frankie'' would be suspended as a number of the actors were at high risk for the virus due to their age. Also on March 12, ViacomCBS announced that '' One Day at a Time'' would continue production without a studio audience but on March 20, the executive producers stated that production had been suspended altogether. Apple suspended production of '' The Morning Show'' and ''Foundation'' as a precautionary measure. The following day, Apple suspended production on all upcoming shows.

On March 13, CBS Television Studios announced several series would suspend production including all series that are part of the ''NCIS'' franchise, ''Bull'', ''Dynasty'', ''Nancy Drew'', ''Charmed'', and ''The Good Fight''. Most of the multi-camera sitcoms produced by CBS Television Studios had already completed production; '' The Neighborhood'' was to film its season finale without a studio audience, but ultimately chose to suspend production the next day, scrapping the planned season finale episode.

The same day, AMC suspended production of '' Fear the Walking Dead'' and '' The Walking Dead''. Also on March 13, Warner Bros. suspended production on multiple series including '' All Rise'', ''Batwoman,'' '' Bob Hearts Abishola'', ''Euphoria, The Flash,'' ''God Friended Me,'' '' Riverdale'', ''Supergirl, Supernatural,'' and ''Young Sheldon.'' Concurrently, ''God Friended Me'' was also canceled by CBS; its last filmed episode was retooled into a series finale by incorporating reusable stock footage from past episodes, and unused location footage from the pilot which had been saved for potential use within a finale.

Lastly, Netflix announced that production on all its films and series in the United States and Canada would be suspended. Production in other countries would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

20th Television and ABC Studios suspended production on multiple series, including ''Empire'' (which prematurely ended its final season), ''Pose'', '' Queen of the South'', ''American Housewife,'' as well as ''Grey's Anatomy'' and ''Genius''. On March 14, Sony Pictures Television announced that it would suspend production on several series including ''The Blacklist'' and '' The Goldbergs''. ''The Blacklist'' would utilize animated sequences inspired by graphic novels in order to complete the partially-filmed episode as a premature season finale.

On March 15, MGM Television revealed that it had suspended production of ''The Handmaid's Tale'', although filmed episodes were expected to air sometime in 2021.'The Handmaid's Tale' Also Suspends Production Over Coronavirus
/ref> Another Hulu series, ''The Orville'', also suspended production. '' Last Man Standing'' originally planned to film its season finale without a studio audience before ultimately suspending production. Both ''The Orville'' and ''Last Man Standing'' were among the last television series to suspend production. NBC pulled the April 7 episode of its medical drama ''New Amsterdam'' for sensitivity reasons, as it depicted a flu pandemic affecting New York City.

The big three networks' soap operas also suspended production, as a result, CBS's ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' and ''The Young and the Restless'', and ABC's ''General Hospital'' eventually ran out of first-run episodes by late April and late May respectively. All three shows began to air themed reruns of classic episodes in the interim. To conserve first-run episodes, most soaps stopped airing first-run episodes on Fridays, and ''General Hospital'' added additional flashbacks from recent storylines to draw out its remaining inventory of episodes. By contrast, as episodes of NBC's ''Days of Our Lives'' are produced roughly eight months in advance of their broadcast, the program had a much larger backlog of first-run episodes available. Viewership of U.S. soap operas saw gains as stay-at-home orders were applied nationwide in late March. ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' and ''General Hospital'' saw their best ratings since March 2018, and ''Days of our Lives'' and ''The Young and the Restless'' saw their best ratings since 2019.

Resumption of production

In late April 2020, Tyler Perry told ''Deadline Hollywood'' that he planned to resume production of programming at his Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios by June, with plans to test cast and crew members on-site before they traveled and to sequester them on the Fort McPherson site's housing, barracks, as well as other purpose-built structures for the duration of production to create a bubble. Perry estimated that it would typically take two-and-a-half weeks for a full season. To avoid potential infection spread people would be quarantined until the results of a second test were received, and then test them again at least every four days afterward. Perry stated that he wrote his scripts with a smaller number of personnel and cast members in mind.

On April 30, industry group Film Florida released a comprehensive series of recommendations and safety protocols for film and television production, which ranged from regular health screenings to limits on the number of on-site staff, not sharing microphones and other equipment, using clear barriers between actors when marking and establishing shots, and other considerations regarding the use of personal protective equipment by crew members. The group noted that studios should "anticipate inefficiencies due to new procedures," and that the guidelines should be used in conjunction with industry guidelines once established. On May 22, Georgia (which, primarily via the Atlanta area, has become a major southern hub for television and film production) became the first state to formally release such guidelines and drew guidance from local officials and studios, as well as the Film Florida guidelines.

On June 5, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that film and television production in California could resume beginning June 12, subject to approval by county public health officers following a review of local conditions. The California Department of Public Health stated that workers "should abide by safety protocols agreed by labor and management, which may be further enhanced by the county public health officers." Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer initially stated that she would not immediately allow film and television production due to an increase in recent hospitalizations, but later announced on June 10 that they would be covered under the next phase of local health orders planned to take effect June 12. That day, the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and SAG-AFTRA published "The Safe Way Forward", which details health and safety protocols agreed upon for union film and television productions. This includes regular testing of cast and crew members, closed sets, access zones, shooting limited to ten hours, and all productions requiring an on-set health safety supervisor.

On June 18, ''Deadline'' reported that NBCUniversal had begun an incremented return to work at its facilities, which included exercises of new protocols. NBCUniversal also performed in-house production of materials such as face masks and hand sanitizer via its Facilities and Administration department for use at other sites outside of California.

On June 17, at Television City, ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' became one of the first U.S. scripted television series to resume on-set tapings, although the production subsequently went on a one-week hiatus in order to accommodate modifications to its protocols to handle the larger number of tests needed. Scenes were filmed in such a way as to allow physical distancing on-set, and immediate family members of cast members were used as stand-ins during scenes that required intimacy. On June 23, it was reported that the resumption had been delayed by one day, as the studio needed to switch testing providers because tests provided by Television City had produced too many false positives. ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' began airing first-run episodes on July 20. ''General Hospital'' resumed production on July 22, and first-run episodes resumed on August 3. Fellow CBS soap, ''The Young and the Restless,'' began airing new episodes on August 10, and ''Days of our Lives'' planned to resume production by September.

On July 25, Tyler Perry's BET series '' Sistas'' became one of the first U.S. scripted primetime series to complete a full season of filming under COVID-19-related safety protocols. Perry reported that there were four positive cases among extras and crew who arrived and that the start of production had faced a delay due to slower turnarounds for testing amidst a nationwide spike. While Perry hoped a vaccine would soon be available, he explained that "we are set up for the long haul, we could be here for a year and a half, two years, five years if we needed to." The second season of fellow Tyler Perry's production ''The Oval'' was completed on August 14.

Resumption of '' The Good Doctor'' in Vancouver was briefly disrupted by conflicts with local labor unions over the large amount of testing required by Sony Pictures Television. Those opposed to new restrictions cited Canadian requirements that already mandated 14 days of self-isolation upon entering the country and the relatively lower rate of transmission in the province of British Columbia at the time. Privacy issues with plans to contract private labs for testing were also cited as a factor. The impasse was resolved in mid-August.

On December 28, 2020, FilmLA published excerpts of a letter recently sent by Los Angeles County health officials, which recommended a temporary suspension of "higher risk" production activity due to the "catastrophic surge" of COVID-19 infections in the area. The surge resulted in a lack of ICU capacity, Governor Newsom referring to LA as the "epicenter" of COVID-19 in the country at that time, and the introduction of a mandatory 10-day self-isolation period for those returning from outside of Los Angeles County. On December 29, SAG-AFTRA's president and national executive director issued a statement indicating that the union was "closely monitoring the recent surge". As a result, most major LA-based television productions extended their pre-scheduled breaks for the holiday season through at least January 11, 2021, if not later. Some productions were reported to have resumed production around January 13, 2021.

In May 2022, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached agreements to allow the loosening of COVID-19 protocols for transport and masking, for productions taking place in regions in the United States and Canada deemed to have a lower risk (including lower

Topical programming

The children's program ''Sesame Street'' produced two half-hour specials. The first – '' Sesame Street: Elmo's Playdate'' – dealt with the pandemic and socializing with others remotely. It premiered on April 14, 2020, and aired in simulcast across multiple WarnerMedia networks (including HBO, which has served as the current first-run broadcaster of the series since 2016) and the PBS Kids channel. The special was underwritten by WarnerMedia's parent company AT&T and aired commercial-free. Apple TV+ also launched a spin-off of ''Fraggle Rock'', '' Fraggle Rock: Rock On!'', filmed entirely using iPhone smartphones from the performers' homes.

Nickelodeon ordered two new shows, tentatively titled ''Group Chat: The Show'' and ''Game Face''. The channel ordered an extra episode of ''Danger Force'', over web streaming. It also commissioned podcasts based on ''The Loud House'', '' Blue's Clues & You!'', ''The Casagrandes'', and ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' as well as one about its animation studio.

YouTube commissioned a mystery series from Sinking Ship Entertainment, ''Locked Down'', for its YouTube Originals brand.

On April 30, NBC aired a one-off, remotely-produced reunion episode of its sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'', " A ''Parks and Recreation'' Special", in support of Feeding America.

In May, CBS legal drama '' All Rise'' aired a topical episode, "Dancing at Los Angeles", as a replacement season finale. It was filmed from its actors' homes using videoconferencing and depicting the in-universe version of the Los Angeles Superior Court conducting its first virtual bench trial due to the pandemic.

On May 22, Apple TV+'s '' Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet'' released a special episode filmed using iPhone smartphones, showing the in-universe impact of the pandemic on its characters.

On July 16, NBC broadcast a one-off reunion episode of its sitcom ''30 Rock''; the episode was co-produced by NBCUniversal's creative services department and intended to serve as its upfronts presentation instead of a physical event. It incorporated product placement and promotions for upcoming series across NBCUniversal properties (including, in particular, its new Peacock streaming service) and was screened in a remote presentation to advertising partners and the media earlier in the day. Due to its promotional nature, many NBC affiliates declined to broadcast the special in primetime.

On August 17, the PBS children's series ''Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood'' premiered "Won't You Sing Along With Me?", an episode dealing with the pandemic. It also produced related episodes revolving around themes such as doctors, separation anxiety, changes at school, and safety.

Comedy Central animated series ''South Park'' broadcast a standalone, one-hour special, "The Pandemic Special", on September 30, satirizing the pandemic and the racial unrest that had emerged in the country over the summer. In March 2021, Comedy Central premiered a follow-up, "South ParQ Vaccination Special", which satirized the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and the QAnon conspiracy theory. Later in the year, the series premiered two "movie" specials exclusively for Paramount+, '' South Park: Post Covid'' and '' South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid'', which feature the main cast as adults, still dealing with the pandemic 40 years later.

Several networks ordered scripted series set during the pandemic, including Joanna Johnson's ''Love in the Time of Corona'' for Freeform, Jenji Kohan's anthology ''Social Distance'' for Netflix, Martin Gero and Brendan Gall's ''Connecting'' for NBC (which was ordered straight-to-series), and a remote work-themed workplace comedy being developed by Ben Silverman and Paul Lieberstein of ''The Office''.

Several returning programs addressed the pandemic as a plot point in their episodes, including ''Black-ish'' and ''The Conners'', the fourth season premiere of ''The Good Doctor,'' '' Superstore'' (which satirized safety protocols being taken by retail stores and the branding of their employees as "essential workers"), '' NCIS: New Orleans'' (whose seventh season is set during the initial onset of the pandemic in Louisiana), and ''Bull.''

Unscripted programming

Suspension of production

In mid-March 2020, Sony Pictures suspended production of its game shows ''Wheel of Fortune'' and ''Jeopardy!'' (''Jeopardy!'' host Alex Trebek had a weakened immune system due to his pancreatic cancer). Other postponed productions included ''American Ninja Warrior'', ''Card Sharks'', ''The Price Is Right'', and ''The Real Housewives of New Jersey.''

ABC reality series ''The Bachelorette'' delayed filming for its sixteenth season, which was set to premiere on May 18. A retrospective spin-off, '' The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever!'', premiered on June 8, featuring highlights and behind-the-scenes footage of past seasons of '' The Bachelor'' and ''The Bachelorette''. On April 29, ''Variety'' reported that ''The'' ''Bachelor'' spin-off series '' Bachelor in Paradise'' had postponed its seventh season to 2021 and that ABC was pursuing filming ''The Bachelorette'' over the summer for a fall premiere. ABC had also planned to produce ''The Bachelor Summer Games'' but initially shelved the series shortly after the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics to July 2021 (which the series was intended to counterprogram, just as its counterpart ''The Bachelor Winter Games'' had for the 2018 Winter Olympics), the spin-off would eventually be canceled in April 2021 following the decision made by the Japanese government which banned foreign spectators from traveling to Japan during the Olympics.

Prometheus Entertainment claimed that its productions of the History programs ''Ancient Aliens'', ''The Curse of Oak Island'', and ''The UnXplained'' were exempt from the Los Angeles' stay-at-home order, which declared "front line news reporters, studio, and technicians for newsgathering and reporting" to be "essential critical infrastructure workers". President Kevin Burns, according to ''The Hollywood Reporter'', told employees they needed to "get over it" and were "hysterical"; the company required staff to attend work through at least March 20.

CBS reality series ''The Amazing Race'' stopped production on its 33rd season in Glasgow, Scotland in late February after filming three out of 12 episodes less than a week into a three-week scheduled production run, as its route was originally proceeded to travel to Lapland in Sweden, and would continue through Austria before passing to Northern Italy—which would become one of the first major epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in the western world. It would cross into Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Chile, and Peru in an eastward direction, which included its final destination city of Indianapolis, Indiana. The season resumed filming in September 2021, with travel restrictions in place, its course modified to go through European countries with high vaccination rates (including Switzerland, France, Greece, and Portugal) and used a Titan Airways charter plane for the rest of the production, but the final destination city was changed to Los Angeles. The preceding 32nd season, filmed in late 2018, was also postponed to a fall premiere. Production of the 41st and 42nd seasons of '' Survivor'', which were due to film in Fiji at the end of the respective months of March and May, was postponed to 2021 (Fiji had also closed its borders to non-citizens). While the program's producers aimed to potentially begin production of season 41 in May for a fall premiere, it did not come to fruition, and the next season of ''S.W.A.T.'' (originally scheduled to be produced for midseason) was moved to CBS's provisional fall schedule in July 2020.

Fox dancing competition series ''So You Think You Can Dance'' was preparing to begin production on its 17th season in mid-March, but it was postponed indefinitely on June 18. On February 16, 2021, ''TVLine'' reported that Fox and the show's producers still had no plans for season 17 to move forward at that time. In March 2022, it was announced that the series would return to Fox in the summer of that year.

Return to production, modifications

Fremantle initially announced that the fifteenth season of ''America's Got Talent'' (NBC), and Season 22 of ''Family Feud'' (syndicated), would film without an audience. Starting the week of March 10, Fremantle began displaying disclaimers in the end credits for ''The Price Is Right'' (CBS) during episodes recorded from late 2019 (season 48) into many 2021 (season 49) episodes, disclosing that producers would arrange substitute prizes for contestants who won trips as prizes for locales impacted by the pandemic. When production resumed in October 2020 for season 49, the disclaimer was changed to note that the traditional rule that trips must be taken within one year of the air date was changed to two years, although with further restrictions prizes could change.

ABC's primetime reboot of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' quickly filmed over eight episodes' worth of material during the weekend of March 14 (they wrapped production one day sooner than scheduled). The program was filmed with no studio audience beyond staff present on-set, which resulted in the replacement of its "Ask the Audience" lifeline with "Ask the Host" (a new lifeline that was originally introduced in a recent revival of the British version). The program's new host, Jimmy Kimmel, credited his early career in radio for helping him adapt to the environment. The second run of episodes was scheduled for a fall premiere, featuring a mixture of celebrity contestants and frontline workers.

After filming without an audience for the remainder of its audition rounds, the 15th season of ''America's Got Talent'' suspended production on March 14; filming of the auditions was originally scheduled to conclude on March 20. To help attract additional contestants, NBC announced on April 1 that it would open a new round of online auditions. By April 27, production staff decided that the season would premiere on May 26 as planned. The show ultimately resumed production in June with a streamlined version of its "Judge Cuts" round, in an outdoor stage setting in Simi Valley, California, with enhanced safety protocols and remote performances. The live quarter-finals (which, due to the revised Judge Cuts format, also had a larger field with four heats rather than three, as in past seasons) were held at Universal Studios Hollywood rather than the Dolby Theatre. There was a mix of pre-recorded remote performances and in-person performances emanating from various locations around the park and the Universal Studios Lot.

The 18th season of ''American Idol'' on ABC and the 18th season of NBC's ''The Voice'' both switched to remote formats, with their contestants and panels conducting the program from their residences. The second season of ''La Voz'', a Spanish-language adaptation of ''The Voice'' on NBC's sister network Telemundo, was also suspended. The series later resumed studio production in Miami, with enhanced safety protocols and no studio audience, and returned to air on July 26, 2020. These changes would later be adopted by season 19 of ''The Voice'', which premiered in October 2020.

The third season of ''The Masked Singer'' (Fox) already completed filming before pandemic-related restrictions took effect, but post-production was performed remotely, and allusions to the pandemic were added in post-production of its final episodes—such as dialogue by Night Angel referencing the panic buying of toilet paper. After filming of the competition wrapped, a performance of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" dedicated to first responders was filmed for the season's penultimate "Road to the Finals" episode, which featured Dionne Warwick and the remaining three finalists.

''Live PD'' ( A&E) transitioned to remote production in April 2020 after a pre-scheduled hiatus. It returned with two, hour-long episodes billed as ''Live PD: Special Edition'', which deviated from the program's usual format (which follows patrols by police officers in real-time) by featuring segments highlighting responses to the onset of the pandemic. On June 10, after having been suspended on June 6 in the wake of the George Floyd protests the program was canceled by A&E and its producers.

The live finale of '' Survivor''s 40th season ( ''Winners at War'') aired as scheduled on CBS, but it was conducted in a remote format with host Jeff Probst hosting from a small set located in his garage. In February 2021, Fiji's Ministry of Trade and Commerce Minister Faiyaz Koya announced that production for the show's 41st season could begin after multiple delays. Production for the series resumed in April 2021 with COVID protocols in place for the crew, contestants, and people of Fiji. One major change the show experienced during its resumption of production was shortening filming to 26 days instead of the usual 39. The production team also decided that the season's winner would be revealed on location during the final tribal council, for the first time since the original season (''Borneo''), as they were unsure of the ability to have a live finale. The vote reveal was then followed by a ''Survivor After Show'' special with the final players and the jury instead of a live reunion.

The second season of '' Love Island'' (CBS) was set to premiere on May 21, but production (which had been scheduled to occur in Fiji) was suspended indefinitely. On August 5, CBS announced that ''Love Island'' would premiere on August 24, and would be set at The Cromwell casino hotel in Las Vegas. ABC's ''Shark Tank'' also elected to film its upcoming season in a larger "bubble" setting in the Las Vegas area, rather than Los Angeles.

After being delayed from its usual June premiere, the Big Brother 22 (American season), 22nd season of ''Big Brother'' (CBS) — ''Big Brother All-Stars'' — premiered on August 5. The format already takes place in an isolated living environment, but the houseguests were tested and quarantined prior to entering the ''Big Brother'' house and tested weekly. Live shows were held without a studio audience.

New and returning game shows also adopted similar changes, including remote auditions, reduction of on-site staff, no studio audiences, and set modifications for physical distancing or other factors. ''Wheel of Fortune'' introduced handheld, cap-like grips, dubbed "the white thing" by host Pat Sajak, to grab the pegs of the eponymous wheel without making direct contact with participants). Fellow syndicated game show ''25 Words or Less (game show), 25 Words or Less'' divided its in-studio contestants and celebrities into "pods", with host Meredith Vieira presenting the show remotely from her home in New York City. CBS's ''The Price Is Right (American game show), The Price is Right'' resumed production in October for its 49th season, with no studio audience, and accommodations made to its set and List of The Price Is Right pricing games, all of its current pricing games in order to comply with health and safety protocols. Its sister show ''Let's Make a Deal'' maintained a smaller audience which consisted of the episode's contestants, while remote audience members could also participate in the show via videoconferencing. Limited audiences returned for ''Price'' in season 50.

Fox resumed production of its new music game show ''I Can See Your Voice (American game show), I Can See Your Voice'' in August 2020, after production was suspended with one episode completed. The second episode and further were taped with only essential personnel and no audience.

The The Masked Singer (American season 4), fourth season of ''The Masked Singer'' commenced production a few weeks later. Among noted production changes were, extensions of protocols already used to conceal the identities of the performers, a re-location from Television City to Red Studios Hollywood in order to have a larger "bubble", increased use of "Augmented reality, virtual reality" effects on-stage, and the use of "quarantining and various camera tricks" to preserve the visible presence of an audience (by using stock footage of audiences from past episodes). The format of the competition was adjusted to reduce the number of times each contestant needed to perform, and live-action "clue packages" were largely substituted for animated shorts to reduce the amount of filming needed. Regular panelist Ken Jeong's experience as a physician and his work with executive producer Craig Plestis on ''I Can See Your Voice'' (which Jeong hosted and co-executive produced), were leveraged as part of the production.

The American Idol (season 19), 19th season of ''American Idol'' reworked its preliminary "Idol Across America" auditions to use a remote format rather than a nationwide tour (which also had the effect of widening the accessibility of the auditions process). The show limited its audition tapings to three locations in California (Los Angeles, Ojai, California, Ojai, and San Diego), with auditionees being flown in from outside of the regions. For the live rounds, the show reintroduced a smaller live audience in a wider studio. As an opportunity for them to perform in person on the ''American Idol'' stage, 10 contestants from season 18 were invited back for a special episode on April 19, where they competed for a wildcard spot in season 19's top 10.

The America's Got Talent (season 16), 16th season of ''America's Got Talent'' filmed its auditions with a limited audience and used stock footage from previous seasons to preserve the visible presence of a full audience The live rounds returned to Dolby Theatre with a full audience as normal, but with audience members required to be vaccinated and masked.

Food Network modified two of its Guy Fieri-hosted series, ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'', and ''Guy's Grocery Games'', to use remote formats.

In July 2022, ''Jeopardy!'' announced it would be bringing back studio audiences for the first time in two years.

Topical programming

TLC (TV network), TLC premiered a spin-off of ''90 Day Fiancé'', ''90 Day Fiancé: Self-Quarantined'', on April 20, following the impact of the pandemic on series alumni. The series uses self-recorded video and videoconferencing. The network also announced ''Find Love Live,'' an interactive dating game show conducted via videoconferencing, as a three-week event series premiering on May 10. In June 2020, TLC renewed ''Find Love Live'' for additional episodes set to begin June 22.

On May 7, 2020, Fox premiered ''Celebrity Watch Party,'' a 10-episode U.S. adaptation of the British series ''Gogglebox'' (where individuals are filmed watching and discussing television programs at their homes).

On May 11, Food Network premiered ''Amy Schumer Learns to Cook'', a home-filmed cooking show starring comedian Amy Schumer and her husband Chris Fischer. In July 2020, the channel also premiered a spin-off of ''Restaurant: Impossible'', ''Back in Business'', featuring host Robert Irvine revisiting restaurants from past episodes to help them adapt to the impact of the pandemic on restaurants.

On May 29, CBS aired the Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn-hosted special ''Haircut Night in America'', which focused on providing advice for DIY hairstyle, hairstyling.

On July 13, E! premiered ''Celebrity Call Center'', a series featuring celebrities engaging in remote conversations with members of the general public.

In November 2020, TBS ordered a U.S. adaptation of ''The Container Cup'' — a Belgian Television format, format developed in the wake of lockdowns, where celebrities and athletes compete in sports challenges delivered to their homes inside shipping containers rigged with cameras.

Talk shows and variety programs

On March 10 and 11, a number of talk shows announced they would begin filming without a studio audience, this included both daytime (such as Walt Disney Television's ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'', ''GMA3: What You Need To Know, Strahan, Sara & Keke'', ''The View (talk show), The View'') and Late-night talk show, Late-night talk shows. Beginning March 12, a number of talk showsincluding those which had before planned to tape without an audienceannounced they would suspend production entirely. Both ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' (CBS) and ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' (NBC) already had hiatuses scheduled in late March. ''The View'' continued production, but panelist Joy Behar, and later Whoopi Goldberg, would begin appearing remotely due to health concerns, and the show modified its set for social distancing on March 17, by replacing the panel's table with what Goldberg described as a "big-ass desk".

On March 12, ''The Late Show,'' ''The Tonight Show,'' and ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' (ABC, with guest host Pete Buttigieg) all aired one final studio-based episode with no audience, while ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' (NBC) shelved its originally-planned episode after its scheduled guests declined to attend. Meyers still filmed that night's "A Closer Look" segment, which was posted on the show's YouTube channel. ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Last Week Tonight'' (HBO) filmed one more episode from an alternate, undisclosed location (due to the #News, closure of the CBS Broadcast Center, its usual studio, for disinfection), with host John Oliver announcing that the show would go on hiatus.

Migration to remote formats

In the wake of the suspensions, late-night hosts such as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers began to produce topical videos for YouTube from their homes or other locations, with a focus on monologues and celebrity interviews performed via Videotelephony, videoconferencing (while Kimmel also experimented with an in-person interview of Bill Burr by doing it from his car, and taping an iPad to his side window to use as a camera). While primarily distributed on digital platforms such as YouTube, from March 16 to 18, CBS aired Colbert's segments on television to augment reruns of ''The Late Show'' (replacing the original opening segment of each episode; the dates had originally been scheduled for original episodes before a regularly-scheduled hiatus for the canceled NCAA March Madness (TV program), NCAA basketball tournament), while NBC began to similarly air Fallon's segments on March 18.

The following week, NBC announced that it would continue with, and expand, Fallon's "At Home Edition" format (interspersing new segments with highlights from past episodes), while several other news satire and talk shows, including ''The Daily Show'' (Comedy Central; billed as ''The Daily Social distancing, Social Distancing Show''), ''Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'' (TBS (American TV channel), TBS, billed as the ''Little Show in the Big Woods'' as it was filmed in Bee's backyard), ''Last Week Tonight'', and fellow HBO series ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', announced that they would also return to air that week with episodes filmed from their hosts' homes, sometimes with the assistance of family members. ''The Late Show'' announced on March 25 that it would return in a similar format on March 30 (billed as ''A Late Show with Stephen Colbert''), while ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' announced a similar move on March 27making it the last of the big three networks' late-night shows to make such a transition. Fellow Comedy Central's late-night program ''Lights Out with David Spade'' was suspended, and later canceled by the network due to low ratings. ''The Daily Show'' was expanded to 45 minutes beginning April 27 as a partial replacement.

A variety of daytime talk shows adopted a similar format, including ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', ''The View'', and ''The Talk (talk show), The Talk''. After a primetime special on March 30, ''The Late Late Show with James Corden'' returned to the air with a similar format on April 13, with host James Corden presenting the program from his garage.

NBC's late-night sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' suspended production on March 16, before returning with its own Saturday Night Live at Home, "at-home" episode on April 11, with sketches and music performances recorded or produced remotely from its cast members' and musicians' homes, and hosted by actor and COVID-19 patient Tom Hanks. After becoming the second-highest-rated episode of the Saturday Night Live (season 45), season, NBC announced that a second episode with a similar format would air on April 25. An ''At Home'' season finale aired on May 9, hosted by Kristen Wiig.

The annual PBS Independence Day (United States), Independence Day special ''A Capitol Fourth'' canceled its live concert in favor of recorded segments (including highlights of past editions in honor of the program's 40th anniversary, and tributes to first responders and African Americans), although the live fireworks on Capitol Hill would still go on and be televised. The ''Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular'' special on NBC similarly relied on recorded performances from various locations (including the Grand Ole Opry and the Prairie Sun Recording Studios), and the fireworks themselves were launched from locations in each New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough on multiple nights (with each night's location only revealed shortly before to avoid prolonged gatherings), which were then compiled for broadcast. Despite the easing of health orders, ''A Capital Fourth'' still canceled its concert in 2021, as the show was already planned to use the previous year's format.

NBC's ''A Little Late with Lilly Singh'' pre-recorded the entirety of its first season in late 2019, with original episodes running through May 2020. NBC renewed the series for a second season that month, which premiered in January 2021. At this time, the show moved to a Los Angeles house with crew on-site, which host Lilly Singh expressed a creative preference towards over her previous, studio-based production. During the season premiere, Singh commented upon viewers that had expressed concerns on social media over why the show was still airing first-run episodes with a studio audience, as they were unaware that the episodes had been filmed "back in 2019 when the only people wearing masks were Robbery, robbers and The Mask (1994 film), Jim Carrey."

Return to studio-based production

On July 6, 2020, after having used an at-home format, TBS (American TV channel), TBS's ''Conan (talk show), Conan'' became the first U.S. late-night show to begin airing episodes from outside of their host's home. Host Conan O'Brien presented the program from the Coronet Theatre (Los Angeles), Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles with limited on-site staff. The program continued to use remote interviews and was filmed without a studio audience (besides assistant Sona Movsesian).

On July 13, ''The Tonight Show'' became the first U.S. late-night talk show to return to tapings at their normal facility (although at NBC Studios (New York City), NBC Studios' Studio 6A with a new set rather than Studio 6B, where the show usually originates), with a limited on-site crew (including his house band The Roots) and no in-studio audience or interviews. The program hosted its first in-studio music performance from 6A on August 11, with Trey Anastasio performing a song from his album ''Lonely Trip (album), Lonely Trip'' with The Roots.

On August 6, 2020, CBS announced that its late-night shows would return to studio tapings with no audience on August 10; ''The Late Show'' returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater building but not the auditorium proper, instead they used a smaller, secondary set modeled upon Colbert's office at the building. Meanwhile, ''The Late Late Show'' returned to a reconfigured version of its normal studio (with its sofa replaced by a single armchair for Corden, and audience seats removed). Usher (musician), Usher was the show's first in-person guest since the start of the pandemic; the segment was initially presented as being a glitchy remote interview, featuring a parody of "My Boo (Usher and Alicia Keys song), My Boo" with Corden entitled "My Zoom (software), Zoom" before Usher suddenly emerged from backstage. On September 14, Corden temporarily hosted from home, after being required to self-isolate due to a possible COVID-19 exposure outside of the studio. The rest of the program's staff remained in studio, with Corden appearing on stage via a monitor atop his desk.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' resumed production at the Hollywood Masonic Temple when Kimmel returned from his summer break (which had been covered by hiatuses and guest hosts) on September 21. ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' also returned to studio production for its new season, using a wider desk for physical distancing between hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, but with a Split screen (video production), split screen effect for the main camera angle designed to make them appear closer together. ''Saturday Night Live'' returned to in-studio production for Saturday Night Live (season 46), season 46 (which premiered October 3), with executive producer Lorne Michaels stating that they also planned to have a "limited" studio audience. Each audience member was legally considered to be part of the cast and crew of the production for New York state health orders and received a $150 payment from Universal Television for their participation.

In January 2021, ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' and ''The Late Late Show'' announced that they would temporarily return to at-home formats, following recommendations issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. On March 22, 2021, ''The Tonight Show'' returned to Studio 6B for the first time since March 12, 2020, with a downsized studio audience of 58 healthcare workers and first responders, making it the first of the major networks' late-night talk shows to return to having an in-person audience. Fallon stated that having an in-person audience for the first time in over a year felt like "performing at a sold-out Madison Square Garden."

On May 24, 2021, ''The Late Show'' announced plans to return to its main studio on June 14, 2021, with a full-capacity audience; all audience members had to be fully vaccinated in compliance with New York state health orders and current CDC guidance. Shortly afterward, ''The Tonight Show'' announced it would return to a full-capacity audience on June 7, which made it the first U.S. late-night talk show to do so in terms of airdate. For its final two weeks of episodes before its series finale on June 24, ''Conan'' added a studio audience at the Coronet, becoming the first L.A.-based late-night talk show to do so. On June 21, ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' also reintroduced a fully-vaccinated, half-capacity audience (in compliance with California public health orders). After a summer hiatus, ''The Daily Show'' relocated to a new studio at ViacomCBS's One Astor Plaza in Times Square on September 13. However, it is maintaining aspects of the at-home format.

''Saturday Night Live'' would face a major disruption on December 18, 2021. As a cautionary measure, due to an ongoing surge of cases in New York City tied to the Omicron variant, the episode would be filmed with no audience, and a limited cast and crew. Michael Che and Kenan Thompson were the only regulars present, joined by host Paul Rudd, as well as Tom Hanks and Tina Fey (who made a surprise appearance to congratulate Rudd on his Five-Timers Club, fifth time hosting ''SNL''). Charli XCX's scheduled performance was cut, although she still appeared in a pre-recorded music video sketch. Fey also filled in for Colin Jost during Weekend Update with Che; the segment was performed from chairs on the main stage rather than its usual newsroom set. Due to the reduced cast, the majority of the episode featured reruns of Christmas-themed sketches from past episodes, introduced by the cast and guests. The following Tuesday, Fox announced that it would cancel its ''Fox New Year's Eve specials, New Year's Eve Toast & Roast'' ''2022'' special for the same reason.

Both ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' and ''The Late Late Show with James Corden'' suspended production in January 2022 due to COVID-19 positives involving their hosts. ''Late Night'' went to a remote format beginning January 10, while ''The Late Late Show'' was suspended until January 18.

New programming

New variety programming

Various specials featuring musicians performing from their homes emerged, including Fox's ''iHeart Living Room Concert for America'' (which aired in place of the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and was simulcast by iHeartMedia radio stations and Fox Corporation cable channels), a CBS special featuring Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, ''ACM Presents: Our Country'' (a similar multi-artist program aired in place of the postponed Academy of Country Music Awards, ACM Awards, also on CBS), ''The Disney Family Singalong'' (an ABC special on April 16, which featured karaoke performances of songs from Disney franchises with celebrity guests, and Public service announcements, PSAs in support of Feeding America), ''Together at Home, One World: Together at Home'' (which aired on April 18 as a multi-network simulcast across ABC, CBS, NBC, and various other cable networks and streaming services), ''Saturday Night Seder'' (streamed live of April 11), and ''Saving Our Selves'' (aired by BET on April 22, with a particular focus on the pandemic's impact on African Americans, African-American communities),

On May 16, the major networks and various other outlets simulcast ''Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020'', a national special honoring graduating students.

New talk programming

AMC premiered a new weekly talk show on April 17, ''Friday Night In with The Morgans'', hosted by Jeffrey Dean Morgan (of AMC series '' The Walking Dead'') and his wife Hilarie Burton from their farm in New York, featuring remote interviews and other segments dealing with the pandemic. On May 4, AMC ordered additional episodes of the series.

Impact on scheduling

Upon the start of COVID-19-related restrictions, broadcasters were forced to rely on their remaining inventory of completed programs that had not yet aired, and the remaining completed episodes of series whose productions were interrupted.

Due to factors such as the need to ration series that had already completed production, some programs faced scheduling changes (such as replacing double-runs of new episodes with single episodes), delays of their scheduled premieres, or dividing seasons of programs with natural Hiatus (television), hiatuses (with the remaining episodes airing at a later date once production resumed). In May, both ABC and CBS filled portions of their schedule with films from their parent companies, with CBS airing ''CBS Sunday Movie, CBS Sunday Night Movies'' on Sunday nights (featuring Paramount Pictures films), and ABC reviving ''The Wonderful World of Disney'' to air a series of Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Marvel Studios films on Wednesday nights.

It was reported in April 2020 that the major broadcast networks had begun to develop contingency plans in case of extended disruptions (especially if they were to impact fall series for the 2020–21 television season), including the possibility of filling schedules with series from co-owned cable networks and streaming services, or importing programs new to American audiences from other countries such as Canada.

Impact on the 2020–21 network television season

Most fall television premieres occur from mid-to-late September through October. Due to production delays, the Big Three television networks, Big Three networks initially targeted premieres for their scripted series within the year, but with no specific dates set. With the steady resumption of production, the networks began to set premiere dates from late October through mid-November. Some of NBC's fall programming, as well as all of Fox and The CW's fall, scripted programming, was deferred to midseason premieres in 2021.

Due to their quick turnaround time in comparison to scripted series, the production of non-scripted programs (including game shows and reality shows) was also expedited by networks to fill gaps in their lineups. With the delayed premieres and increased production costs due to safety protocols, it was reported that scripted dramas would likely not air full 22-episode seasons, with CBS having already reduced orders for CBS Studios' dramas and sitcoms to either 16 or 18 episodes in October 2020, and negotiating similar reductions for series from other studios.

ABC

Premiere dates were announced for ABC's lineup on September 17, with October premieres for reality series such as ''The Bachelorette'', ''Dancing with the Stars (American TV series), Dancing with the Stars'', and ''Shark Tank'', and game shows (including held over episodes from its Sunday night summer block of ''Celebrity Family Feud'', ''Press Your Luck'', and ''Match Game'' on Thursday nights, and ''Supermarket Sweep'', ''Card Sharks'' and ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' on Sundays). ABC's sitcoms would largely return in late October, and selected dramas (including the new series ''Big Sky (American TV series), Big Sky'') was set for mid-November, although ''Stumptown (TV series), Stumptown'' would be canceled by the network and replaced by ''For Life (TV series), For Life''.

''The Bachelor (American season 25), The Bachelor,'' ''Mixed-ish'', and ''The Rookie (TV series), The Rookie'', along with the new series ''Call Your Mother,'' were scheduled for premieres in January 2021. ABC also scheduled several new and returning game shows to its winter lineup, including a new season of ''To Tell the Truth'', and a "Winter Fun & Games" block on Thursday nights (spun off from its summer "Sunday Fun & Games" block) featuring the new series ''Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune'', ''The Chase (American game show), The Chase'', and ''The Hustler (American game show), The Hustler''.

After not airing new seasons in the summer of 2020, The Bachelorette (season 17), season 17 of ''The Bachelorette'', '' Bachelor in Paradise'', and ''The $100,000 Pyramid'' were scheduled to return for ABC's summer lineup. Coming off the success of the delayed The Bachelorette (season 16), season 16 as a fall series, ABC announced that The Bachelorette (American season 18), season 18 of ''The Bachelorette'' would air as part of its 2021–22 fall lineup.

CBS

CBS pushed back The Amazing Race 32, Season 32 of ''The Amazing Race'' to a fall premiere, with the new sports panel show ''Game On! (American game show), Game On!'' moved up to fill its spot on the summer schedule. CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl explained that they hoped their scripted programs could return to production "at some point this summer", and that they could have "most if not all of these shows on at some point in the fall." Kahl did not rule out other contingencies. On July 13, CBS moved up S.W.A.T. (2017 TV series), ''S.W.A.T.'' to a fall premiere to replace '' Survivor'', which was unable to resume production in time.

On August 26, CBS announced that it would air reruns of series from sister properties, such as the fourth season of '' One Day at a Time'' (Pop (American TV channel), Pop) and the Star Trek: Discovery (season 1), first season of ''Star Trek: Discovery'' (CBS All Access, which would double as promotion for the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery (season 3), third season). Its filming was completed in February, with post-production done remotely, and the acquired series ''Manhunt (2017 TV series), Manhunt: Deadly Games'' (acquired from cable provider Charter Communications) was set to round out its late-summer/early-fall schedule.

CBS announced on September 17 that ''CBS Sunday Movie, Sunday Night Movies'' (which CBS introduced in May as a limited run to fill timeslots held by suspended programming) would air for six weeks through October and November, to fill timeslots until its scripted lineup resumes production. As before, they drew from the library of corporate sibling Paramount Pictures.

Fall premiere dates were announced for CBS's scripted lineup on October 13, which began with its Chuck Lorre sitcoms of ''Mom (TV series), Mom'', ''Young Sheldon'', and the new series ''B Positive'' on November 5, ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' and ''NCIS: New Orleans, New Orleans'' on November 8 (with the 10 p.m. hour being filled by "fan favorite" episodes of ''NCIS (TV series), NCIS''), ''S.W.A.T.'' on November 11, '' The Neighborhood'', '' Bob Hearts Abishola'', and '' All Rise'' on November 16, and ''NCIS'' on November 17. Ahead of their return to daytime, CBS scheduled several primetime episodes of its daytime game shows ''The Price is Right'' and ''Let's Make a Deal'', beginning with episodes of both featuring essential workers on October 27.

CBS scheduled ''Clarice (TV series), Clarice'', ''The Equalizer (2021 TV series), The Equalizer,'' and a new season of ''Tough as Nails'' for its February lineup, with ''The Equalizer'' premiering after Super Bowl LV. After not airing in the fall of 2020 or spring of 2021, '' Survivor'' returned to the air as part of the network's 2021–22 season.

Fox

Fox announced plans for its fall lineup in May 2020, having deferred most of its scripted live-action programs to midseason (animated series such as ''The Simpsons'' can be readily produced on a remote basis). The new summer dramas ''Filthy Rich (2020 TV series), Filthy Rich'' and ''NeXt (2020 TV series), neXt'' were pushed back to fall premieres. The fourth season of ''The Masked Singer'' was to initially be joined on Wednesday nights by a new season of ''MasterChef Junior'', while Fox also acquired network premieres of ''L.A.'s Finest'' (a series originally picked up by Charter after being turned down by NBC) and ''Cosmos: Possible Worlds'' (from former sister network National Geographic (American TV channel), National Geographic, which premiered on that channel earlier in the year) for the fall lineup and Thursdays and Fridays would be filled by ''Thursday Night Football'' (notwithstanding postponements due to NFL COVID-19 protocols) and ''WWE SmackDown''.

In August 2020, Fox pushed back ''MasterChef Junior'' in favor of ''I Can See Your Voice (American TV series), I Can See Your Voice'', a new music game show that was able to resume production in August. For its winter lineup, Fox acquired a revival of ''Name That Tune'' to accompany the ''Masked Singer'' spin-off ''The Masked Dancer (American TV series), The Masked Dancer'', which was filmed in Australia (a country that had significantly stronger COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, management of the pandemic than the United States at the time of filming) with contestants of American Australians, American descent.

NBC

NBC announced on May 14 that it had acquired the Canadian medical drama ''Transplant (TV series), Transplant''. In Canada, where the series aired at midseason on CTV Television Network, CTV, ''Transplant'' was the most-watched Canadian content, domestic production of the television season.

A provisional fall schedule was unveiled in June 2020, with only one new series premiere originally planned (the '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' spin-off ''Law & Order: Organized Crime''), and no specific premiere dates announced. In August, NBC replaced ''New Amsterdam'' with ''Transplant'' for a September 1 premiere, and announced that the American Ninja Warrior (season 12), 12th season of ''American Ninja Warrior'' (which filmed at The Dome at America's Center, The Dome in St. Louis from late June to mid-July) would premiere on September 7.

On August 27, NBC announced premiere dates for several fall series, including a revival of the quiz show ''Weakest Link (American game show), Weakest Link'' hosted by Jane Lynch on September 28, the new videoconference-based sitcom ''Connecting'' on October 1, the fourth season of ''Ellen's Game of Games'' on October 6, season 19 of ''The Voice'' on October 19, '' Superstore'' on October 22, and The Blacklist (TV series), ''The Blacklist'', the ''Chicago (franchise), Chicago'' franchise, ''Law & Order SVU'', and ''This Is Us'' all during the week of November 9''.'' The network deferred its remaining fall series (including ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', ''Law & Order: Organized Crime'', ''Manifest (TV series), Manifest'', and ''New Amsterdam'', among others) to midseason.

On September 9, NBC bumped ''Weakest Link'' to Tuesday nights with a September 29 premiere, in favor of a second new episode of ''Dateline NBC, Dateline'' on Monday nights from September 21 to October 12 (with ''The Weakest Link'' moving to Mondays to accompany ''The Voice'' beginning October 19). On September 23, NBC moved up the season premiere of ''This Is Us'' to October 27, with series creator Dan Fogelman later stating that the decision came from his desire for its first two episodes to air before 2020 United States presidential election, election day. The next day, ''Connecting'' would be pushed back to October 8, and ''Superstore'' to October 29.

In November, NBC canceled ''Connecting'' and pulled it from its schedule, with the three remaining episodes Burning off, burned off on Peacock. On November 10, 2020, NBC acquired another Canadian medical drama, ''Nurses (Canadian TV series), Nurses''. Midseason premieres included the new series ''Mr. Mayor'' and returning series ''The Wall (American game show), The Wall'' and ''Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist'' in January 2021, the new series ''Kenan (TV series), Kenan'' and ''Young Rock'' in February, and ''New Amsterdam'', The Voice (American season 20), season 20 of ''The Voice'', and new series ''Debris (TV series), Debris'' in March.

The CW

The CW deferred most of its fall scripted premieres to January 2021. The second half of the Supernatural (season 15), final season of ''Supernatural'' (which had been deferred to fall 2020 due to the pandemic, with two episodes left to film) would be joined by a lineup of acquisitions, non-scripted series, and delayed summer series for the network's late-summer and fall lineups, such as new seasons of The Outpost (TV series), ''The Outpost'', ''Pandora (TV series), Pandora'', ''Penn & Teller: Fool Us'', ''Two Sentence Horror Stories'', ''Whose Line Is It Anyway? (American TV series), Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', and the new series ''World's Funniest Animals''. It also acquired linear premieres of series from CBS and WarnerMedia's streaming services CBS All Access (''Tell Me a Story (TV series), Tell Me a Story'') and DC Universe (streaming service), DC Universe (''Swamp Thing (2019 TV series), Swamp Thing''), and imported series from the UK and Canada such as ''Being Rueben'', ''Coroner (TV series), Coroner'', ''Dead Pixels'', ''Devils (TV series), Devils, Fridge Wars, Killer Camp,'' and ''Taskmaster (TV series), Taskmaster'' (although ''Taskmaster'' would be pulled after its premiere due to low viewership).

Many of The CW's scripted programs are typically filmed in Canada, which had relatively better management of the pandemic than the United States. In March 2021, The CW ordered a second season of ''Killer Camp'' as an original series for the next season, but it was cancelled after two episodes due to low ratings.

News

Modified broadcasting

Amidst their coverage, television newscasts and news channels encouraged physical distancing on-set, remote work, and increased use of remote interviewsin order to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC guidelines. In-person interviews (universally with the reporter Video journalism, both shooting and editing their story alone) often used improvised setups to allow distancing, such as microphone extensions adapted from monopods and improvised Plastic pipework, PVC pipe Boom operator (media), booms. Local newscasts faced similar changes, with stations often limiting newscasts to one studio anchor (or two if physically distanced), and minimally staffed newsrooms. Local newscasters began remote working in some cases, and a small number of staff remained at the studio. Some meteorologists have already had this capability, in order to provide coverage of severe weather events during overnight hours in case no one else is present at the studio.

On March 15, a one-on-one debate for the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries took place between former Vice President of the United States, Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. After initially intending to hold the event at its original venue in Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, with no audience or outside press, the debate was re-located to a studio at CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau. It was ultimately the only debate during the pandemic, as Biden clinched the Democratic nomination shortly thereafter. Biden subsequently conducted media appearances and meetings from his home in Delaware via videoconferencing.

Two of the Big Three television networks, Big Three networks' national morning shows — ABC's ''Good Morning America'' and NBC's ''Today (American TV program), Today'' —continued to have in-studio anchors in New York City, although some anchors were temporarily moved home, including ''Today'' Al Roker and Craig Melvin (as a precaution after a staff member of the program tested positive with mild symptoms), and ''GMA'' Robin Roberts (newscaster), Robin Roberts (as a precaution due to past medical issues) and George Stephanopoulos.

On March 11, the CBS Broadcast Center facility in New York City was closed for disinfection after two employees tested positive, resulting in ''CBS This Morning'' temporarily moving to the set of the ''CBS Evening News'' in Washington, D.C., and the newscasts of CBS-Owned-and-operated station, owned New York station WCBS-TV being produced and anchored remotely from the studios of its sister stations in California. While the CBS Broadcast Center re-opened on March 13, it was closed once again on March 18. ''CBS This Morning'' subsequently moved to the set of ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' at the Ed Sullivan Theater, before switching to a remotely anchored format by late March to minimize staff amidst heightening cases in the region. CBSN programs (including the ''CBS Weekend News'') were produced from other CBS O&Os and affiliates, and WCBS-TV newscasts were once again produced from Los Angeles sister station KCBS-TV, but with the anchors later appearing from the Stamford, Connecticut studio of the New York Yankees' regional sports network YES Network for a period.

A WCBS-produced primetime newscast on WUPA — a CBS-owned The CW affiliate in Atlanta — was also suspended due to the shutdown of the CBS Broadcast Center. From late March through early August, the newscast was replaced by a straight simulcast of a newscast produced by sister CBS station WBZ-TV, WBZ in Boston, with little effort to localize the program's content besides a news ticker, and weather segments produced from WWJ-TV, Detroit (which aired alongside those that were Boston-specific). This arrangement remained until August 11, when WUPA's newscast was taken over by CBS's Fort Worth station KTVT and returned to a local format.

On June 22, in concert with phase 2 of New York City's lifting of restrictions, ''CBS This Morning'' returned to its studio at the CBS Broadcast Center, with minimized staff and at least one anchor continuing to host remotely as a contingency. Fox News Channel's morning show ''Fox & Friends'' also resumed in-studio production, with social distancing enforced on-set.

Pandemic-related programs

As the crisis became more obvious and activated, television news outlets began to increase their coverage of its impact at the local and national levels. Fox News, Fox News Channel added more live rolling news blocks to its schedule (including an extension of ''Fox News @ Night'' to 1:00 a.m. nightly, and a new overnight block anchored by Trace Gallagher), while Fox Business scuttled most of its prime-time programming in order to carry additional coverage on its impact.

ABC replaced its daytime talk show ''Strahan, Sara and Keke, Strahan, Sara, and Keke'' with ''Pandemic: What You Need To Know'', a special weekday program produced by ABC News Live and hosted by Amy Robach. Due to the suspension of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', ABC temporarily returned its long-running late-night newsmagazine ''Nightline'' to its original 11:35 p.m. timeslot from March 17 through April 10. with a focus on in-depth coverage. After ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' shortened to half an hour for its at-home episodes, ''Nightline'' moved to the 12:05 a.m. slot.

Although ''What You Need To Know'' was initially promoted as an interim replacement for ''Strahan, Sara, and Keke'', the program would persist indefinitely. Several months later, it was quietly renamed ''GMA3: What You Need To Know'' (now branding it as a spin-off of ABC's morning show ''Good Morning America'', as its predecessor had), expanded its scope to include other news topics unrelated to COVID-19, and added T. J. Holmes as a co-anchor in September. In July and August 2020, it was reported by ''New York Post, Page Six'' and co-host Keke Palmer respectively that ''Strahan, Sara and Keke'' had been canceled by ABC, absent an official statement on the future of the program.

Most of NBC's NBC Owned Television Stations, owned-and-operated stations extended their local late-night newscasts to a full hour from March 16 to 27. NBC's Spanish sister network Telemundo pre-empted its late-night sports program ''Titulares y Más'' in favor of a new late-night Noticias Telemundo bulletin, ''Coronavirus: Un Pais en Alerta'' (''Coronavirus: A Nation On Alert'', along with temporarily extending its morning show ''Un Nuevo Día'' by 90 minutes, its midday newscast ''Noticias Telemundo Mediodía'' by an additional half-hour, and its afternoon newsmagazine ''Al Rojo Vivo (2002 TV program), Al Rojo Vivo'' by one hour, in place of telenovela repeats and unscripted entertainment programs normally shown in some weekday daytime slots.

On April 26, 2020, Netflix premiered the first episode of ''Coronavirus, Explained,'' a special limited season of its documentary series ''Explained (TV series), Explained'' focusing on the pandemic. The first episode was produced in two-and-a-half weeks, and reused interviews that had been filmed for the previous episode "The Next Pandemic".

''In This Together: A PBS American Portrait Story'' premiered on May 8, 2020, as part of a larger series based on viewer-submitted content.

Quarantines due to positive cases

Media organizations have also faced direct impact from the pandemic. Several correspondents have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including CBS News foreign correspondent Seth Doane, quarantined in Rome, ABC News correspondents Kaylee Hartung, quarantined in Los Angeles, as well as George Stephanopoulos (who contracted it asymptomatically from his wife Ali Wentworth while quarantined at home in New York City), and CNN anchors Chris Cuomo, Brooke Baldwin, and Richard Quest.

Sports

Suspension of games

The suspension of nearly all sports leagues and competitions due to the pandemic caused complications for broadcasters, as major events frequently have a large number of live viewers and high advertising revenue. The largest and most significant events also represent a major investment by broadcasters; in 2019, the total market for sports media rights in the United States was estimated at $22.42 billion, representing 44% of the international market. CBS Sports and Turner Sports pay $785 million per year to televise the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournamentwhose 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, 2020 edition was canceled only six days before it was scheduled to begin. In 2019, a 30-second commercial during the national championship game on CBS cost around $1.5 million, while CBS and Turner's contract to air the tournament accounts for nearly 72% of the NCAA's annual revenue.

At the time of the suspensions, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) were also approaching their 2020 NBA playoffs, respective playoffs, Major League Soccer (MLS) was already two weeks into its 2020 Major League Soccer season, regular season, Major League Baseball (MLB) was approaching the start of its 2020 Major League Baseball season, regular season, CBS Sports was approaching its spring events such as the 2020 Masters Tournament, Masters Tournament, and NBC Sports was also approaching its spring lineup (promoted as the ''NBC Sports Championship Season''), including the 2020 Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Derby, 2020 Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis 500, 2020 French Open, French Open, and the NHL on NBC, NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs—all postponed by the pandemic. Analysts felt that a postponement or cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympics would have a major impact on NBCUniversal, due to the extensive rights fees it had paid to televise them, its large advertising inventory (NBC already announced that it had sold $1.2 billion in advertising for the Games), as well as the extensive use of NBCUniversal's various properties to promote the Olympics and vice versa; NBC was expected to use the Games to bolster the July launch of its new streaming video platform Peacock. On March 24, it was announced that the Games would be postponed to 2021.

Sports-oriented cable networks revised their schedules due to the lack of live programming. They relied on reruns of classic events, and other original programming, in addition to cutting down on studio programming due to the lack of sports news to discuss beyond the pandemic's impact. One example of past televised events being re-aired was ESPN airing classic finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on April 12, 2020, following the suspension and later cancellation of the 2020 competition. An exception was the National Football League (NFL), whose 2019 NFL season, 2019 season had already concluded in early February. The pandemic's surge in North America roughly coincided with the beginning of offseason business such as the Free agent#National Football League (NFL) usage, free agency period, and the lead-up to the 2020 NFL Draft, which went on as scheduled, but with no public festivities, and was conducted remotely.

ESPN acquired reruns of several recent editions of WWE's WrestleMania events as part of the lead-up to WrestleMania 36, which had also been impacted by the pandemic, and ESPN2 organized an early reprisal of its annual "ESPN8" Stunting (broadcasting), stunt (inspired by the depiction of a fictitious, eighth ESPN channel in the film ''DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story'', which airs competitions that are "almost a sport") on March 22, followed by a May 2 edition on the main ESPN network (headlined by a deadlift world record attempt by strongman and ''Game of Thrones'' actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson).

Regional sports networks were also impacted; the sale of regional broadcast rights serves as a key source of revenue for many sports franchises. During the suspension of play, leagues granted RSNs easier access to archive content to help fill schedules, and some networks scheduled encores of games against opponents that their respective teams would have played if the season had continued play as normal.

Modified programming

Professional wrestling

One of the few forms of sports-oriented programming in the United States to continue regular broadcasts during pandemic-related lockdowns was professional wrestling. WWE suspended in-arena broadcasts of its weekly shows ''WWE Raw, Raw'' (USA Network) and ''WWE SmackDown, SmackDown'' (Fox) on March 13, and moved them to a closed studio at its WWE Performance Center training facility in Orlando, with no audience and only essential staff present. WWE's flagship pay-per-view WrestleMania 36, originally scheduled for Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, took place under the same conditions (with two "cinematic" matches filmed at a second Orlando location, and Titan Towers, WWE's Stamford headquarters respectively). From the lead-up to WrestleMania through April 10 (and including WrestleMania itself), WWE used a pre-recorded format for its programs, before switching back to live shows on April 13. ''WWE NXT'' also returned to live broadcasts under similar conditions, from its usual home at Full Sail University in Orlando suburb Winter Park, Florida, Winter Park. Matches originally intended for ''NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay'' — a canceled WWE Network special that was meant to serve as a Card (sports), support event for WrestleMania — were retooled for airing on ''NXT'' episodes in April.

The government of Florida issued an exemption to the state stay-at-home order on April 9, for staff of a "professional sports and media production" produced behind closed doors for a national audience. Mayor of Orange County, Florida Jerry Demings stated that the exemption was primarily intended for WWE, while Governor Ron DeSantis did not rule out its use by other sports bodies. All subsequent WWE pay-per-views until August 2020 were broadcast live from the Performance Center, and continued to include occasional pre-filmed and "cinematic" matches, including Money in the Bank (2020), Money in the Bank (May, featuring a revamped version of its Money in the Bank ladder match, eponymous Money in the Bank matches taking place within WWE's Stamford headquarters), Backlash (2020), Backlash (June, featuring a pre-recorded "Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" between Edge (wrestler), Edge and Randy Orton with new production techniques, Artificial crowd noise, simulated crowd noise, and other homages to WWE in the 1980s), and The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, Extreme Rules (July, featuring a "swamp fight" match filmed at an outside location).

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) similarly moved its weekly ''AEW Dynamite, Dynamite'' to the Daily's Place amphitheater in Jacksonville on March 18 for two more weeks of television. While closed to the public, other performers were present on the sidelines as an audience. The show moved to One Fall Power Factory, a wrestling training school in Norcross, Georgia owned by AEW producer Q. T. Marshall for three days of taping on March 31, where the promotion recorded content for AEW's Road to Double or Nothing (2020), Double or Nothing episodes of Dynamite. AEW returned to Daily's Place on May 6 for ''Dynamite'' episodes (some tape days featured two shows taped, typically over one or two days), and moved the Double or Nothing (2020), Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 23 from its original venue, the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and also using neighboring TIAA Bank Field for a "Empty arena match, Stadium Stampede" match. WWE began to add NXT (WWE brand), NXT talent and other Performance Center trainees as an on-set audience beginning with the May 25 ''Raw''. They were spaced apart and placed behind glass panes.

On August 12, AEW invited 150 friends, family, and selected fans to attend a ''Dynamite'' taping in an experiment to test changes for a return to ticketed events. On August 20, AEW announced that it would begin to sell tickets for in-person spectators at Daily's Place at 10-15% capacity, beginning with the August 27 ''Dynamite'', with a 750 spectator limit initially. Beginning with the August 21 ''SmackDown'', WWE moved its main weekly shows and pay-per-views (beginning with SummerSlam (2020), SummerSlam two nights later) from the Performance Center to Amway Center with a larger-scale production (branded as the "WWE ThunderDome") and a virtual audience.

In October, ''NXT'' and ''205 Live'' moved from Full Sail and the ThunderDome to the Performance Center, in a remodeled main arena referred to as the "Capitol Wrestling Center" (an homage to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, a precursor to the present-day WWE), beginning with the NXT TakeOver 31 pay-per-view. It initially featured a virtual audience similar to the ThunderDome, as well as limited in-person attendance (friends and family, as well as some outside spectators; they were divided using glass panes decorated with Chain-link fence, chain-link fencing). It was reported that the change was due to logistical conflicts with Full Sail that prevented WWE from continuing production at the university.

As it was unlikely that California public health orders would be sufficiently eased in time for the event, and as compensation for last year's re-location, WWE announced in January 2021 that WrestleMania 37 would be moved from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, Inglewood (which was given WrestleMania 39 in 2023 instead) to Raymond James Stadium. WWE also confirmed plans to have in-person attendees at a reduced capacity, making it its first event to do so since March 2020. Due to its cancellations of live, ticketed events, WWE had a 9% year-over-year decline in revenue between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021, which would be partially offset by lower operating costs, and an agreement with NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock to be the exclusive U.S. distributor of WWE Network content.

In November 2020 Full Gear (2020), Full Gear AEW expanded the capacity to 33% to 1,000 spectators. For their next pay-per-view event in March 2021, Revolution (2021), Revolution was allowed 1,300 spectators. AEW Blood and Guts, Blood and Guts on May 5, 2021, drew 1,600 spectators, and by the end of the month, AEW expanded its Daily's Place shows to full capacity beginning with its pay-per-view Double or Nothing (2021), Double or Nothing.

On May 21, 2021, WWE announced that it would return to in-person touring shows in July, beginning with the July 16, 2021, ''SmackDown'' from Toyota Center in Houston, followed by the Money in the Bank (2021), Money in the Bank pay-per-view at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on July 18, and ''Raw'' the following night from American Airlines Center in Dallas. On June 11, AEW announced that it would return to touring shows with a "Welcome Back Tour" of special ''Dynamite'' episodes, beginning with AEW Road Rager, Road Rager at the Knight Center Complex in Miami on July 7. Beginning with NXT TakeOver: In Your House (2021), NXT TakeOver: In Your House on June 13, ''NXT'' greatly expanded its audience in the CWC studio and lifted its mask requirements.

Resumption of live sports

With the gradual resumption of live sporting events, broadcasters have taken steps to reduce the number of staff members present on-site. Production teams on-site have typically been isolated into smaller units for social distancing reasons, if not working aspects of production remotely from their network's studio instead (a model that has been used for some sports broadcasts even before the pandemic). Commentators may also be required to call games remotely from their network's studio or at home.

To reduce on-site staff during the 2020 Major League Baseball season, the home team's local broadcaster was responsible for producing a neutral host video feed to be used by each broadcaster carrying the game (including the away team's broadcaster and/or a national broadcaster, such as Major League Baseball on Fox, Fox or ESPN Major League Baseball, ESPN, where applicable), which augmented it with commentary and surrounding coverage. MLB commentators did not travel to their teams' away games but could broadcast home games on-site at their discretion.

With the NBA and NHL having adopted a centralized "hub" approach to complete their 2019–20 seasons, both leagues employed a similar model with host feeds produced by their national broadcast partners (NBA on ESPN, ESPN and NBA on TNT, TNT for the NBA, and NHL on NBC, NBC and Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet for the NHL). Both broadcasters had selected on-air personnel within the quarantine "bubble", but the majority of NBC's commentators worked games remotely during the early rounds. Both leagues were also experimenting with new types of camera angles that would not be possible in an arena with spectators present. The NHL adopted a nearly identical neutral feed model to MLB for its 2020–21 NHL season, 2020–21 season, although NBC still sent its crew for exclusive broadcasts.

To compensate for the lack of crowd due to games being held behind closed doors, some broadcasters employed Artificial crowd noise, simulated crowd sounds sourced from their league's official video games, with the NHL combining them with recordings of team-specific chants contributed by fans, and the NBA using video boards erected on its courts at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex to display mosaics of remote fans powered by Microsoft Teams videoconferencing. Fox experimented with the use of "virtual", CGI fans to mask empty stands on its baseball broadcasts. By contrast, ESPN intentionally eschewed simulated crowd noise for its broadcasts of the MLS is Back Tournament, instead leveraging the lack of crowd and additional in-field microphones to provide enhanced in-game audio. The grandstand was masked by a chroma key wall, used primarily to display sponsor logos. WWE introduced a similarly styled "ThunderDome" staging at Orlando's Amway Center in August 2020 in time for its SummerSlam (2020), SummerSlam pay-per-view, also using a virtual audience.

Despite many restrictions having been lifted over 2021 and 2022, some regional sports networks have retained a remote production model and commentary to varying extents due to budgetary concerns and other factors: The Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals' MASN continued to have its commentators broadcast all away games remotely (although this decision was quickly reversed in late-April 2022 following criticism), while the Boston Bruins and Red Sox's NESN began to phase in on-site road broadcasts in 2022 (with Bruins broadcasts doing so near the end of the regular season, and most Red Sox away games scheduled for on-site broadcasts). NBC Sports Bay Area is maintaining remote broadcasts for San Francisco Giants away games that feature their main broadcast team of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, as Krukow is no longer able to travel due to his inclusion body myositis (prior to the pandemic, the network had planned a hybrid setup in the 2020 season for Krukow to call selected games remotely, but with Kuiper still traveling to the game site; Shawn Estes and Javier López (baseball), Javier López serve as an alternate broadcast team for all other Giants road games). Bally Sports West is also employing remote commentary for Los Angeles Angels games, in order to accommodate play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian's day-to-day commitments to MLB Network.

Alternative event programming

Sports broadcasters experimented with televised esports competitions, primarily involving sports video games and participants from their respective sports, such as the ENASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series (whose first event on March 22 attracted 903,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, making it the highest-rated esports broadcast on U.S. linear television). A subsequent event simulcast the following week on Fox surpassed it with 1.339 million viewers, and a seven-week tournament that followed the original NASCAR Cup Series schedule (including taking the Easter week off), ending May 9, 2020 with a race on a recreation of historic NASCAR venue North Wilkesboro Speedway, in lieu of the 2020 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway (which had been rescheduled for June 10), before the return of in-person Cup Series competition with 2020 The Real Heroes 400, The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway. The series was renewed for a second season in January 2021 as a ten-week Wednesday night series with five weeks each half, and primarily promoting changes on the 2021 NASCAR schedule. The IndyCar Series and NBC Sports introduced a similar invitational series, while ESPN and the NBA organized an ''NBA 2K Players Tournament,'' and Major League Soccer partnered with Fox to hold a televised ''FIFA 20'' tournament, featuring MLS players and professional ''FIFA 20'' players from the game's esports circuit. In professional esports, ESPN2 would simulcast matches from the 2020 LCS season, 2020 ''League of Legends'' Championship Series Spring playoffs.

ESPN organized a televised H-O-R-S-E competition, featuring NBA and WNBA players competing via remote feeds from their personal courts. On May 4, 2020, ESPN announced that it had reached a deal for exclusive U.S. rights to KBO League baseball from South Korea for the 2020 KBO League season, using ''ESPN Major League Baseball'' personalities. Another major exception to the lack of live sports programming was thoroughbred racing at selected tracks; Fox Sports 1 is simulcasting the New York Racing Association's ''America's Day at The Races'', while NBCSN partnered with TVG Network to simulcast its ''Trackside Live'' program on weekend afternoons. TVG itself switched to remote production, and on-air personalities began incorporating explanations of technical terminology to accommodate new viewers.

Impact on the broadcasting industry

Implementations of mitigations such as stay-at-home orders led to a major increase in the usage of streaming services. Two more major streaming services — HBO Max (WarnerMedia) and Peacock (NBCUniversal) launched following the arrival of the pandemic, which has contributed to the diffusion of content among multiple providers. In June 2020, Deloitte found in a survey that there was a growing "fatigue" over the number of competing streaming services, and that this and economic issues brought upon by the pandemic have led to increased Churn rate, churn, customers limiting the number of services they subscribe to at once, and growth in advertising-supported (either free or low-cost) streaming platforms.

The pandemic also accelerated the market trend of cord cutting, the practice of reducing the use of traditional Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel television services in favor of streaming services.

Due to the suspension of production of launch programming, Discovery Inc. delayed its planned re-launch of DIY Network as Magnolia Network (curated by Chip and Joanna Gaines of the HGTV series ''Fixer Upper (TV series), Fixer Upper'') from October 4, 2020, to an unspecified date in 2021, with previews of its launch programming being available on its new streaming service Discovery+ in January 2021. On February 11, 2021, Discovery announced that Magnolia's linear launch had been delayed to January 2022, and that it planned a wider streaming launch of its programming slate via Discovery+ and the Magnolia Network app on July 15, 2021.

On sports networks

Sports channels typically demand the highest per-subscriber carriage fees of any cable networks in the country. There were calls for broadcasters to compensate television providers for the lack of live events during lockdowns that these fees typically cover; New York Attorney General Letitia James stated that it was "grossly unfair that cable and satellite television providers would continue to charge fees for services they are not even providing".

In 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (as Diamond Sports Group) acquired the RSN chain Fox Sports Networks for $9.6 billion, a transaction mandated as part of Disney's Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The group holds regional rights to 42 professional teams across the country, and voluminous high school and college sports rights. Sinclair is also a joint venture partner with the Chicago Cubs in the team's new Marquee Sports Network. Concerns were raised that Diamond Sports' investment in the networks was vulnerable due to the lack of live programming, with an analyst stating that Diamond "may be heading for a liquidity crisis even sooner than we anticipated", as Retransmission consent, carriage negotiations with major providers may be more difficult without live events. Sinclair took a $4.23 billion write-down on the purchase in November 2020.

In June 2020, citing the ending of its carriage agreements, the cancellation of NCAA tournaments, and uncertainties, ESPN announced that it would discontinue ESPN Goal Line & Bases Loaded, ESPN Goal Line/Bases Loaded, a part-time ESPN channel that carried rolling coverage of highlights and look-ins from regular-season college football games, and the NCAA College baseball, baseball and College softball, softball tournaments. When ESPN instituted a similar channel for coverage of the MLB Wild Card Series games, such coverage was delegated to subscription service ESPN+.

On December 31, 2021, NBCUniversal discontinued its cable sports channel NBCSN, and moved its remaining sports properties to USA Network, Peacock, and Olympic Channel (American TV channel), Olympic Channel. While a memo revealing the decision earlier in the year did not specifically mention the pandemic as a contributing factor, NBC Sports was dealing with the impacts of the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics on revenue, among other postponed or cancelled events.

Award shows

Several award shows were also postponed or reformatted as virtual events since they were considered to be large gatherings that were subjected to government public health restrictions, including the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards (originally to be held March 29 in Los Angeles and aired by Fox. Its ceremony was canceled on August 24, with winners announced throughout the Labor Day weekend on iHeartMedia radio stations instead of a televised ceremony), The 2020 Kids' Choice Awards, 2020 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (originally to be held on March 22 in Inglewood, California, Inglewood, California and rescheduled for May 2 in a remote format), the 55th Academy of Country Music Awards (originally to be held April 5 and aired by CBS, but rescheduled for September 16), and the 2020 Billboard Music Awards (originally to be held on April 29, but rescheduled to October 14). The 74th Tony Awards (originally to be held on June 7 at Radio City Music Hall and aired by CBS) were postponed indefinitely, due largely to mandated closures of Broadway theaters in New York. CBS aired a "sing-along" version of ''Grease (film), Grease'' as a ''CBS Sunday Movie, CBS Sunday Night Movie'' in place of the ceremony.

The 47th Daytime Emmy Awards canceled its in-person ceremonies, which had originally been scheduled in a new three-night format. On April 28, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, NATAS announced that the presentation would be rescheduled as a virtual event, and announced on May 20 that the winners in leading categories would be presented in a CBS special on June 26 — which marked the return of the Daytime Emmys to television in any form (after having been streamed online) for the first time since 2015, and its return to network television for the first time since 2011.

On May 1, the Television Critics Association canceled their summer 2020 press tour, originally scheduled for July 28 through August 13, including the TCA Awards. The organization was unsure it could occur at all due to public gathering restrictions, and an anticipated lack of any new scripted or unscripted programming output, even in pilot form, to promote.

The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards canceled its in-person ceremonies (scrapping plans to hold a less-crowded ceremony at Barclays Center), and relied mainly on pre-recorded performances and appearances on chroma key stages in New York City and Los Angeles (in the case of K-pop group BTS, South Korea), and performances filmed on-location at sites across New York City. New one-off award categories for best home-filmed music videos, "quarantine performances", and music performances by first responders were also added. Its companion, the MTV Movie & TV Awards, never announced nominations or an airdate. On November 11, MTV announced that it would instead air a retrospective special, ''MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time'', and aim to air a larger ceremony encompassing the summer of 2019 through 2021 in late 2021. The network later announced that the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards would be held in May 2021 across two nights, with the second devoted exclusively to non-scripted television.

The 55th Academy of Country Music Awards was moved to Nashville, with performances and award presentations divided between the Bluebird Café, the Grand Ole Opry#Grand Ole Opry House, Grand Ole Opry House, and the Ryman Auditorium. The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards, 56th ceremony in 2021 followed a similar format, albeit with healthcare workers as guests on the balconies at the Ryman and the Opry.

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards were produced as a virtual event from Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles, with host Jimmy Kimmel and award presenters appearing on a stage at the arena, and all nominees appearing via remote feeds from various locations. Kimmel acknowledged the circumstances in his opening monologue, which featured stock footage of audiences from past Primetime Emmy ceremonies—culminating with one that showed Kimmel himself as an audience member.

On January 5, 2021, the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards were postponed from January 31 to March 14 due to the then-current level of cases in the Los Angeles area. The ceremony featured a mix of live and pre-recorded segments and was filmed with no audience at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It used five different stages in a circular arrangement (which producer Ben Winston stated was inspired by the British music program ''Later... with Jools Holland'').

The 93rd Academy Awards were postponed from February to April due to the impact of the pandemic on the film industry; the ceremony was re-located to Union Station (Los Angeles), Union Station's historic ticket hall, with a limited number of participants in the hall at any one time, and some appearing remotely from other locations. The 78th Golden Globe Awards, also postponed, took the Oscars' original date, and featured in-person attendance at New York's Rainbow Room in addition to its traditional home of The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles (with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-hosting from the two locations respectively), and some participants appearing remotely.

On May 26, 2021, it was announced that the 74th Tony Awards would be held on September 26, 2021, with the Winter Garden Theatre announced as the venue that August. The CBS primetime broadcast was retooled as a two-hour concert special paying tribute to the reopening of Broadway shows, along with the presentations for the top awards of Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Musical, Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, Best Revival of a Play, and Tony Award for Best Play, Best Play. The rest of the individual award presentations were held during a two-hour segment that streamed exclusively on Paramount+.

The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards were initially to take place inside the Microsoft Theater at L.A. Live. However, due to concerns over the Delta variant, CBS and the academy announced that the ceremony would be held at the Event Deck, a hybrid indoor-outdoor venue within the L.A. Live complex. The ceremony was largely held inside a tent with upwards of 800 people inside; presenter Seth Rogen jokingly commented on-air that "they said this would be outdoors. It's not. We're in a hermetically sealed tent. They lied to us." Host Cedric the Entertainer later noted that all attendees were required to be fully vaccinated in order to attend, and that "I did not have a reaction Nicki Minaj#COVID-19 vaccine tweets, like Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend." The ceremony was produced in accordance with Los Angeles regulations for film and television productions.

In December 2021, the 27th Critics' Choice Awards were postponed due to the widespread surge of the Omicron variant in the United States, and were later rescheduled to March 13, 2022, the same day as the 75th British Academy Film Awards, with the ceremony split between venues in Los Angeles and London. The following month, the 64th Grammy Awards were postponed from their initial January 31, 2022 date to April 3 of that year due to similar concerns over the Omicron variant, and also moved from Crypto.com Arena to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas due to scheduling conflicts. The 94th Academy Awards returned to its usual home of the Dolby Theatre, with proof of vaccination requirements for attendees (but not presenters and performers), and the main seating area arranged for social distancing using seats and tables.

Beauty pageants

Several beauty pageants had been postponed including Miss USA 2020, which was originally scheduled in spring 2020 and planned to be broadcast on Fox but was postponed indefinitely. On August 31, 2020, it was announced the pageant would be rescheduled for November 9 and moved to the cable channel FYI (American TV channel), FYI to be held in Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, implementing a socially distanced audience with 300 spectators had been allowed to accommodate broadcasting costs.

Likewise, Miss Universe 2020 was originally scheduled in fall/winter 2020 and rescheduled for May 16, 2021 being held in Hollywood, Florida also on a socially distanced venue at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood onto an allowed 1,750 seated audience, around 25 percent of the venue's seating capacity and that event was also aired on FYI. This was the only time FYI aired the event when its regular broadcaster Fox due to uncertainties.

The Miss USA 2021 had affected the scheduling of the state pageant season which had normally been held from September 2020 to February 2021, pushed to December 2020 and much of 2021 following the indefinite delay of Miss USA 2020. Some state pageants such as Alaska and Hawaii, were held behind closed doors in a private hotel reception. On April 20, 2021, it was announced the pageant would be held at River Spirit Casino and Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma in November 2021. Sometime later in summer 2021, FYI would be broadcast the pageant for the second year running.

The Miss America had planned its Miss America 2022, 94th edition (known as Miss America 2021) which was originally scheduled for December 2020 but was cancelled on May 8, 2020, the Miss America Organization opted to postpone its edition to a full year in 2021, causing to include a one-time only grandfather clause on eligibility for state qualifying pageants were due to have scheduled between April to June 2020, in which competitors who would have exceeded the age limit of 25 years were grandfathered for the following year. In April 2021, the Miss America Organization announced the upcoming pageant is set to schedule in December 2021 to be held in Mohegan Sun.

Affected productions

See also

*2020 in American television
*COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
*Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television
*2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, last major interruption to U.S. television production

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (impact on television)
2020 in American television
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television,
Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Television