Cedric the Entertainerhas made his debut as host of the 73rd PrimetimeEmmy Awards.
CBS
Cedric continued, “Now some of ya’ll thought this celebration would be more subdued, kind of like an Emmys light, but, that’s not the way this host treats his best friend.”
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RappersLL Cool JandLil Dickyand actress-singerRita Wilsonjoined in as well. They got the whole audience of celebrities involved, too, with Anthony Anderson, Mandy Moore, Billy Porter, Mj Rodriguez and Tracee Ellis Ross, among the stars standing in their seats to sing along.
“This is the Emmys people, that’s how we do it!” Cedric said when they wrapped the song, adding, “R.I.P. to the one and only Biz Markie.”
Later, during his monologue, Cedric talked about having to be vaccinated to attend the ceremony.
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“I did not have a reaction likeNicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend,okay,” Cedric joked. “I got Pfizer, you know what I’m saying? Because I’m bougie, alright? Pfizer, that’s the Neiman Marcus of vaccines, you know what I mean? Moderna, that’s Macy’s and then Johnson and Johnson, that’s TJ Maxx of course.”
The comedian joked that with so many famous faces in the room, “we [are] not leaving until we find a new host ofJeopardy!in here somewhere.”
Cedric also discussed the pressures of hosting the Emmys.
“It comes with a lot of pressure being Black hosting a job like this. Because my people they expect that I can just give an award to anybody,” he said. “Black people are like ‘Yo Ced, come on man, you got to give Martin Lawrence an Emmy. And not just Martin, see, you got to give Sheneneh one too.’ I’m like, ‘That’s the same person dog.’ Jimmy Kimmel don’t have that problem.”
Cedric previously opened up about hosting the show for the first time and the ideas he had in mind to make the evening a night to remember.
“We wanted to do something that reminded viewers of the big shows,” hetold PEOPLE. “Two of my favorite Emmy hosts are Billy Crystal and Martin Short. We didn’t want to go Broadway with it, but we do want to do something similar to that. So we got a big, fun number to open up and show that’s got some sketches.”
He added that he was just a bit “nervous” going into the hosting gig, especially given that the event will have a limited in-person, live audience of nominees and their guests, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Emmys to go mostly virtual in 2020.
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“So I think that had me a little, say, nervous if you will, to think about like, ‘Oh, I’m the guy that’s bringing it back out,'” he said. “This is how we set the mark. So I think that that’s the only place where I feel like there’s pressure, but I plan on having a good time.”
source: people.com
