E! Eyeing Award Show Return with ‘People’s Choice’

NBCUniversal’s E! Network sees awards shows returning to normal later this year when it plans to air the E! People’s Choice Awards with celebrities handing each other trophies and an audience applauding.

The network scheduled the 2020 People's Choice Awards for Nov. 15 and said it will be broadcast from Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif.

The Coronavirus pandemic has wiped out normal television production and forced performers to broadcast from their homes. It has also erased audiences for concerts and sports events.

E! will be monitoring the situation closely and will make any necessary changes needed.

This year’s telecast will celebrate an unprecedented year in pop culture and bring together the entertainment community, its fans and honor the everyday heroes, the network said.

Den of Thieves, the production company behind last year's show, is back for the 2020 edition. 

Last year’s E!’s People’s Choice Awards telecast averaged 974,000 total viewers, up 45% from the previous year. The show reached 4.6 million total viewers across E!, Bravo, Syfy and USA Network.

The award show was the most social telecast of the night with 5.9 million interactions across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, according to Nielsen.

Leading up to the event 1.7 billion votes were cast to choose award winners. 

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.