The 73 rd Primetime Emmy Awards will require COVID - 19 test

The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards will see top streamers compete head to head — and this time the ceremony won't be virtual.

The in-person event will be held under an air conditioned tent in Los Angeles and will require that all attendees show a negative COVID - 19 test in addition to proof of vaccination.

That makes the Emmys the first major awards show to require vaccinations for all attendees, which will be limited to just four guests per nomination. The Comedian Cedric the Entertainer is set to serve as this year's host.

This year, streaming giants have largely favored Emmy nominees. Netflix NFLX with its fledging streaming service HBO Max followed by HBO T with 129 nominations.

Two-year old Disney DIS came third with 71 nominations, while traditional cable network NBC CMCSA finished in fourth with a mere 46 nominations. Ted Lasso rounded out the top five with 37 total nods – largely thanks to breakout comedy series Apple TV AAPL which secured 20 nominations.

Furthermore, the top three most-streamed shows were from streaming. the Crown, along with Disney’s The Mandalorian, each nabbed 24 nominations, followed by Disney’s WandaVision with 23 nods. It was the first time in the Emmys history that top 3 most respected shows came from streaming platforms.

In addition, nods to traditional cable or broadcast networks were experiencing all-time lows. Streaming platforms have made a real commitment to channeling huge resources into the creative side of their business, both behind and in front of the camera, Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Yahoo Finance recently.

Resources and creative freedom equals some good content, so that's why you see this streaming dominance right now, the analyst explained.

Yet despite the amount of Emmy nominations, streaming giants have struggled to convert nominations into actual wins. Netflix, for example, still has to win the top award in the categories of drama, comedy or limited series — despite pouring billions of dollars into content every year.

The last streaming series to win the best drama was Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale 4 years ago.

The prize is the prize, Dergarabedian noted, although in some ways getting nominated can be a prize in some ways. The perception of quality is one the most important motivating factors for consumers. That's why all of these platforms covet these nominations, but before that happens they have to chase the creators who can create content that will get the nominations, get the awards and build on that brand equity and recognition. CBS is under the pressure to get a ratings boost, especially after last year's telecast saw ratings plummet to a record low of just 6.1 million viewers on ABC.

That represented the lowest amount of viewers in the show's history, and thus dramatically off from 6.9 million people who watched the show in 2019, revealed the network at the time.

Awards shows that debuted throughout the course of the pandemic saw rapid swings to the downside. In addition to last year's Emmys, viewership for the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes were all significantly lower than the previous year — down 58.3%, 53%, 63%, respectively.

However, this year's ratings will be a bit different as the show is set to simultaneously broadcast both on a major cable network CBS and streaming service Paramount The addition of Paramount — where signups and streaming viewership will be critical when it comes to analysing the show's entire performance – should help offset some of the importance of those linear broadcast figures.

The 73 rd Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept 19 on CBS and stream live online at Paramount 8 PM ET 5 PM PT.