Why the Tony Awards are being split between CBS and Paramount+

Variety

Audra McDonald will host the awards-heavy first two hours of the Tonys Sunday on Paramount+, followed by Leslie Odom Jr. hosting a two-hour concert event on CBS. Producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss faced a challenging task: "How to hand out awards, celebrate the best in recent theater and — perhaps most crucially — hammer home the fact that Broadway is back and open for business," says Michael Schneider. "One result: Taking advantage of multiple platforms in the ViacomCBS universe by expanding the show to four hours (from its normal three hours on CBS) — but splitting time between Paramount Plus and CBS. Dubbed The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back, the show has been divided into two: A live presentation of most of the 74th Annual Tony Awards for the first two hours, followed by a live concert event for the second two hours (along with the three key awards: best play, best revival and best musical)." As Jack Sussman, CBS Entertainment exec VP of specials, music, live events and alternative programming, put it: "We sat down and creatively challenged ourselves to figure out how do we bring the full power of the new ViacomCBS to the Tony Awards. It’s kind of like the real time, contemporary version of what everybody’s calling ‘convergent media.’ That brought Paramount Plus and CBS together. For what used to be a three-hour broadcast telecast, we’re now embracing this new linear and streaming combined ecosystem.”