EXCLUSIVE: This week’s fatal shooting of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk has left Emmy organizers more security conscious that ever for this weekend’s already pretty locked down ceremony in downtown LA.
While specifics have not been provided for obvious reasons, producers, CBS execs, TV Academy leaders and law enforcement have been huddling the past 24 hours to cast a tighter, wider and more stringent net over the September 14th small screen gathering at the Peacock Theater.
Hinted at during today’s red carpet rollout photo op with TV Academy chair Cris Abrego and president/CEO Maury McIntyre, producers and host Nate Bargatze, those measures will including increased LAPD presence around the LA Live situated site, I’m told. As well, there will be increased protocols inside and outside the 7,100-seat venue. Additionally, various agencies like Homeland Security and the California Highway Patrol will take on “expanded roles,” according to one law enforcement source, along with the private security hired for the CBS broadcast show.
“We aim to have any event in the City of LA, like the Emmys, as secure as possible and as a safe as possible,” a LAPD spokesperson said today.
Since the horrific attacks of 9/11 24 years ago today, security around high profile Hollywood events like the Emmys, the Oscars, the Grammys and the Golden Globes has ebbed and flowed in relation to political and cultural currents – with some years seeing greater shows of force than others. The 76th Primetime Emmys, for instance, saw pro-Gaza demonstrators hold up traffic and delay the Peacock arrival of some nominees and other guests to the ABC broadcast show.
With political violence becoming more pronounced over the last year in many ways, the death of Charlie Kirk and its aftermath has become an potential flashpoint to many pundits and Donald Trump himself in a deeply divided America that already has seen troops on the streets of major cities like LA.
The right wing 31-year-old Kirk, a top unofficial advisor to Trump, was shot dead from what seems to be a single bullet fired in front of thousands at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Starting in the GOP stronghold state, Kirk was kicking off his multi-date American Comeback campus tour. Despite an extensive ongoing manhunt by the FBI and local law enforcements and the release of surveillance camera screenshots of a potential suspect, the shooter has not yet been apprehended.
“Tragedies like the shooting of Charlie Kirk rattles everyone, we all feel it,” a rep with multiple clients attending the 77th Primetime Emmys told Deadline Thursday. “You can never be too safe at the best of times,” she added, noting several extra precautions her clients are taking for Sunday’s Jesse Collins Entertainment produced ceremony.
“We prepare for a variety of circumstances from weather to something on the other side of the world,” the law enforcement source emphasized, stressing the response since Wednesday’s shooting is drawing from “long established” scenario planning. “Part of that preparation is being able to scale up if necessary following something like the shooting,” he stated of the killing of Kirk Wednesday
“We have already instituted additional measures, and will continue to do so over the next 48 hours or so.”
The 77th Primetime Emmys will be broadcast on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+ starting at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET on September 15.
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