Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television in the United States

It was reported that the major broadcast networks begun to develop contingency plans in case of extended disruptions (especially if they were to impact fall series for the 2020–21 television season), including the possibility of filling schedules with series from co-owned cable networks and streaming services, or importing programs new to American audiences from other countries such as Canada.[1]

CBS announced that it would introduce a Sunday-night movie block to run throughout May, drawing largely from the library of corporate sibling Paramount Pictures.[4] A broadcast of a sing-along version of Grease was added to the lineup for June 7, filling the time slot of the postponed Tony Awards.[5] In regards to fall scripted programming, CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl stated that they were "hopeful that we can go into production at some point this summer and have most if not all of these shows on at some point in the fall." Kahl did not rule out contingencies, while season 32 of The Amazing Race was pushed back to the start of the 2020–21 television season (with the new sports game show Game On! filling its spot on the schedule).[6][7]

In May 2020, Fox announced its primetime lineup for the upcoming fall season; most of its scripted live-action programs (besides animated series such as The Simpsons, which can be readily produced on a remote basis) were delayed to midseason, while Filthy Rich, neXt, and the next season of MasterChef Junior were pushed back from summer to fall premieres, joined tentatively by a fourth season of The Masked Singer, as well as Thursday Night Football and Friday Night SmackDown. Fox also acquired network premieres of L.A.'s Finest (a series originally picked up by cable provider Charter Communications after being turned down by NBC) and Cosmos: Possible Worlds (from former sister network National Geographic, which aired earlier in the year) for the fall lineup.[8][9]

The CW similarly announced that it would delay all original scripted premieres to a cycle beginning in January 2021, and that its fall lineup for the upcoming season would rely primarily on acquisitions, including The Outpost, linear premieres of series from CBS and WarnerMedia's streaming services CBS All Access (Tell Me a Story) and DC Universe (Swamp Thing), new imports such as Coroner (Canada) and Dead Pixels (United Kingdom), as well as existing non-scripted series such as Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Whose Line Is It Anyway?[10]

NBC announced on May 14 that it had acquired the Canadian medical drama Transplant from CTV, with a premiere date to be determined. In Canada, the series had been the most-watched domestic production of the previous television season.[11][12]

The production of many scripted television series have been affected by the pandemic. On March 10, Fox announced that a production member of the upcoming show NeXt has tested positive for the coronavirus. Production of the series was completed one week before the announcement.[13] Furthermore, the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier suspended its international production in Prague, where a week of filming was set aside. Filming continued in Atlanta until filming statewide was suspended two weeks later.[14]

On March 12, Universal Television delayed shooting for the shows Russian Doll, Rutherford Falls, and Little America.[15] A few hours later, NBCUniversal announced that 35 additional shows would suspend production, including unscripted shows. As such, programs such as the three series of the Chicago franchise as well as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, FBI, New Amsterdam and Superstore had their production suspended; Superstore had to modify its season finale with making its 21st episode in the fifth season the last one produced before the shutdown, short of a 22-episode order.[16] Furthermore, it was revealed that production of Carnival Row had been suspended. Carnival Row was filming in Prague at the time of the production shutdown.[17] The same day, Netflix announced that production on the final season of Grace and Frankie would be suspended as a number of the actors are at high risk for the virus due to their age.[18] Also on March 12, ViacomCBS announced that One Day at a Time would continue production without a studio audience but on March 20, the executive producers stated that production has suspended.[19] Apple suspended production of The Morning Show and Foundation as a precautionary measure. The following day, Apple suspended production on all upcoming shows.[20][21][22]

On March 13, CBS Television Studios announced several series would suspend production including all series that are part of the NCIS franchise, Bull, Dynasty, Nancy Drew, Charmed and The Good Fight. All multi-camera sitcoms produced by CBS Television Studios had already completed production, with the exception of The Neighborhood. The latter would film the season finale without a studio audience.[23] The same day, AMC suspended production of Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead.[24] Also on March 13, Warner Bros. Television had suspended production on multiple series including Young Sheldon, All Rise, Bob Hearts Abishola, God Friended Me (which had its last completed episode retooled as a series finale, incorporating an earlier filmed ending, after CBS announced its cancellation in April), Supergirl and Batwoman. The same day, Warner Bros. also suspended production on several other series including Euphoria and Snowpiercer. As well as other Warner Bros. produced television shows being filmed in Vancouver, Canada: Riverdale, The Flash, Batwoman, and Supernatural.[25] Lastly, Netflix announced that production on all its films and series in the United States and Canada would be suspended. Production in other countries would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.[26]

On March 14, Sony Pictures Television announced that it would suspend production on several series including The Blacklist and The Goldbergs.[27] Walt Disney Television announced that it had suspended production on multiple series, including Empire (which restructured its last completed episode as a de facto series finale, with the intent of eventually filming a proper ending), Pose, Queen of the South, American Housewife as well as Grey's Anatomy and Genius. The latter two series had their production suspended on March 13.[28]

On March 15, MGM Television revealed that it had suspended production of The Handmaid's Tale. Filmed episodes may air sometime in 2021.[29] Another Hulu series, The Orville, has also suspended production. Last Man Standing originally planned to film its season finale without a studio audience before ultimately suspending production. Both The Orville and Last Man Standing were among the last television series to suspend production.[30] NBC pulled the April 7 episode of its medical drama New Amsterdam for sensitivity reasons (as it dealt with a flu pandemic affecting New York City, a real-life epicenter of the outbreak).[31]

The big three networks' soap operas have also suspended production; ABC's General Hospital had two months of new episodes remaining, and CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless had around 4–6 weeks of episodes remaining. By contrast, NBC's Days of Our Lives has a much larger backlog, as its episodes are produced roughly eight months in advance of their broadcast. To extend first-run episode availability until production can resume, both ABC and CBS announced that they would only air four new episodes per-week, with reruns of classic episodes running on Fridays instead. General Hospital was further able to extend the shelf life of first-run episodes by interweaving flashback scenes from recent storylines into current episodes; however, the two CBS soaps elected to run their completed episodes as produced, resulting in newer episodes running out after The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful's respective April 23 broadcasts and the extension of older episodes (dating back to the early 1980s, and offered in the form of theme weeks tied to popular characters and classic storylines) throughout their weekly schedule beginning on April 27. General Hospital adopted similar themed episode repeats on May 25, as its first-run episode backlog ran out with the May 21 episode.[32][33][34][35]

All Rise produced a new season finale episode, "Dancing at Los Angeles", from its actors' homes using videoconferencing, depicting the in-universe version of the Los Angeles Superior Court conducting its first virtual bench trial due to the pandemic.[36] NBC announced that the season 7 finale of The Blacklist would utilize animated sequences inspired by graphic novels in order to complete the partially-filmed episode.[37]

Live-action sitcom One Day at a Time created an animated, presidential election-themed episode, "The Politics Episode", to premiere on June 16.[38]

The children's program Sesame Street produced a half-hour special, Sesame Street: Elmo's Playdate, which dealt with the pandemic and socializing with others remotely. It premiered on April 14, airing in simulcast across multiple WarnerMedia networks (including HBO, which has served as the current first-run broadcaster of the series since 2016) and the PBS Kids channel. The special was underwritten by WarnerMedia parent company AT&T, airing commercial-free.[39][40] Apple TV+ also launched a spin-off of Fraggle Rock, Fraggle Rock: Rock On!, filmed entirely using iPhone smartphones from the performers' homes.[41]

Nickelodeon ordered two new shows, tentatively titled Group Chat: The Show and Game Face.[42] The channel also ordered an extra episode of Danger Force, over web streaming.[43] It also commissioned podcasts based on The Loud House, Blue's Clues & You!, The Casagrandes, and Are You Afraid of The Dark?, as well as one about its animation studio.[44][45]

YouTube commissioned a mystery series from Sinking Ship Entertainment, Locked Down, for its YouTube Originals brand.[46]

On April 30, NBC aired a one-off, remotely-produced reunion episode of its sitcom Parks and Recreation, "A Parks and Recreation Special", in support of Feeding America.[47]

On May 22, Apple TV+'s Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet released a special episode filmed using iPhone smartphones, showing an in-universe impact of the pandemic on its characters.[48]

In mid-March, Sony Pictures suspended production of its game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! (Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has a weakened immune system due to his pancreatic cancer).[49] Other postponed productions include American Ninja Warrior, Card Sharks, The Price Is Right and The Real Housewives of New Jersey.[50][51]

ABC reality series The Bachelorette delayed filming for its sixteenth season, which was set to premiere on May 18.[52] A clip show spin-off, The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever!, premiered on June 8 as a replacement series, featuring highlights and behind-the-scenes footage of past seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.[53] On April 29, Variety reported that Bachelor spin-off series Bachelor in Paradise had postponed its seventh season to 2021, and that ABC was pursuing filming The Bachelorette in a quarantined environment over the summer, targeting a fall premiere.[54]

CBS reality series The Amazing Race stopped production on its thirty-third season in late February after filming the season's first three episodes (which were mostly filmed in the United Kingdom), and the preceding thirty-second season was set to premiere on May 20 (although that season was filmed in late 2018) but was postponed to the start of the 2020–21 television season.[55][56] Production of the forty-first and forty-second seasons of the longest-running reality series Survivor, which were due to film in Fiji at the end of respective months of March and May, was postponed due to the coronavirus threat in the country.[57] The second season of fellow CBS series Love Island was set to premiere on May 21, but production was suspended indefinitely.[4]

Prometheus Entertainment claimed that its productions of the History programs Ancient Aliens, The Curse of Oak Island, and The UnXplained were exempt from Los Angeles' stay-at-home order, which declared "front line news reporters, studio, and technicians for newsgathering and reporting" to be "essential critical infrastructure workers". President Kevin Burns, according to The Hollywood Reporter, told employees they needed to "get over it" and were "hysterical"; the company required staff to attend work through at least March 20.[58]

Fremantle initially announced that the fifteenth season of America's Got Talent (NBC), and Family Feud (syndicated), would film without an audience.[50] Starting the week of March 10, CBS began displaying disclaimers in the end credits for The Price Is Right during episodes recorded from late-2019 into 2020, disclosing that producers will arrange substitute prizes for contestants who won trips as prizes for locales impacted by the pandemic.[59]

After filming without an audience for a period, America's Got Talent suspended production on March 14; filming of the auditions was originally scheduled to conclude on March 20.[60] To help attract additional contestants, NBC announced on April 1 that it would open a new round of online auditions.[61] By April 27, production staff decided that the season would premiere on May 26 as planned,[62][63] though with continuing debate on how many episodes will be broadcast with the amount of material that had been already recorded.[64]

The eighteenth season of American Idol (ABC) shifted to an at-home format beginning with its Top 20 round on April 26, with its contestants and judging panel conducting the program from their residences.[65][66]

The eighteenth season of The Voice (NBC) was also conducted remotely for the final three weeks of the season.[67] The performance episodes were pre-recorded to air on May 4, 11, and 18, but the results shows airing on May 5, 12, and 19 remained live.

Survivor: Winners at War (CBS) went on as scheduled; however, the live season finale, which normally includes the reveal of the final voting result and full cast reunion, was heavily modified. Only host Jeff Probst and the last three contestants participated, all remotely; the pre-recorded portion of the show was expanded, and no footage from the following season was available as production was delayed.[68]

The third season of The Masked Singer (Fox) already completed filming before pandemic-related restrictions took effect. Eased by the production and presentation of the series, acknowledgements to the pandemic were added in post-production of the final episodes, such as dialogue by Night Angel referencing the panic buying of toilet paper. The penultimate "Road to the Finals" episode also included a special performance of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" dedicated to first responders, featuring season 3 contestant Dionne Warwick and the remaining three finalists. The performance was filmed after production wrapped.[69]

TLC premiered a spin-off of 90 Day Fiancé, 90 Day Fiancé: Self-Quarantined, on April 20, following the impact of the pandemic on series alumni. The series uses self-recorded video and videoconferencing.[70] The network also announced Find Love Live, an interactive dating game show conducted via videoconferencing, as a three-week event series premiering on May 10.[71] TLC later renewed the show for a limited summer run, which began on June 22.

Fox premiered Celebrity Watch Party—a 10-episode U.S. adaptation of the British series Gogglebox, on May 7.[72][73]

On May 11, Food Network premiered a pandemic-themed cooking show, Amy Schumer Learns to Cook, starring comedian Amy Schumer and her husband Chris Fischer.[74]

On May 29, CBS aired the Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn-hosted special Haircut Night in America, which focused on providing advice for DIY hairstyling.[75]

A number of shows – including the late-night shows which had before planned to tape without an audience – announced they would suspend production. Both The Late Show and The Tonight Show already had hiatuses scheduled in late-March.[76] Last Week Tonight filmed one final episode from an alternate location (due to the closure of the CBS Broadcast Center, its usual studio, for disinfection) and announced it would go on an indefinite hiatus.[77] In the wake of the suspensions, late-night hosts such as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers began to produce topical videos for YouTube from their homes or other locations, with a focus on monologues and celebrity interviews performed via videoconferencing (while Kimmel also experimented with an in-person interview of Bill Burr by doing it from his car, taping an iPad to his side window to use as a camera).[78] While primarily distributed on digital platforms such as YouTube, from March 16 to 18, CBS aired Colbert's segments on television to augment reruns of The Late Show (replacing the existing opening act of the respective episode; the dates had originally been scheduled for original episodes before a regularly-scheduled hiatus for the cancelled NCAA basketball tournament),[79] while NBC began to similarly air Fallon's segments on March 18.[80][81][82][83]

Starting on March 12, a number of talk shows announced they would begin filming without a studio audience.[84][85] The shows included late-night talk shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,[86] Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Greg Gutfeld Show,[87] and daytime talk shows Live with Kelly and Ryan, The View, Dr. Phil, The Wendy Williams Show, The Real and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.[88]

The following week, NBC announced that it would continue on with and expand Fallon's "At Home Edition" format (interspersing new segments with highlights from past episodes), while several other news satire and talk shows, including The Daily Show (billed as The Daily Social Distancing Show),[89] Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,[90] Last Week Tonight, and fellow HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher, announced that they would also return to air that week with episodes filmed from their hosts' homes.[91] The Late Show announced on March 25 that it would return in a similar format on March 30 (billed as A Late Show with Stephen Colbert),[92][79] while Jimmy Kimmel Live! announced a similar move on March 27 – making it the last of the big three networks' late-night shows to make such a transition.[93] A number of daytime talk shows have adopted a similar format, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The View, and The Talk.[94] After a primetime special on March 30,[95] The Late Late Show with James Corden returned to air with a similar format on April 13, with host James Corden presenting the program from his garage.[96]

NBC's late-night sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live suspended production on March 16, before returning with its own "at-home" episode on April 11, with sketches and music performances recorded or produced remotely from its cast members' and musicians' homes, and hosted by actor and COVID-19 patient Tom Hanks.[97][98] After becoming the second-highest-rated episode of the season, NBC announced that a second episode with a similar format would air on April 25.[99] An At Home season finale aired on May 9, hosted by Kristen Wiig.[100]

The annual PBS Independence Day special A Capitol Fourth cancelled its live concert in favor of remotely-produced segments (including highlights of past editions in honor of the program's 40th anniversary, and tributes to first responders and African Americans), although the live fireworks on Capitol Hill will still go on and be televised.[101]

Various specials featuring musicians performing from their homes emerged, including Fox's iHeart Living Room Concert for America (which aired in place of the postponed 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and was simulcast by iHeartMedia radio stations and Fox Corporation cable channels),[102][103] a CBS special featuring Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood,[4] ACM Presents: Our Country (a similar multi-artist program aired in place of the postponed ACM Awards, also on CBS),[104] The Disney Family Singalong (an ABC special on April 16, which featured karaoke performances of songs from Disney works with celebrity guests),[105] One World: Together at Home (which aired on April 18 as a multi-network simulcast across ABC, CBS, NBC, and various other cable networks and streaming services), Saturday Night Seder (streamed live of April 11),[106] and Saving Our Selves (aired by BET on April 22, with a particular focus on the pandemic's impact on African-American communities),[107][108]

On May 16, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and various other outlets simulcast Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020, a national special honoring graduating students.[109]

AMC premiered a new weekly talk show on April 17, Friday Night In with The Morgans, hosted by Jeffrey Dean Morgan (of AMC series The Walking Dead) and his wife Hilarie Burton from their farm in New York, featuring remote interviews and other segments dealing with the pandemic. On May 4, AMC ordered additional episodes of the series.[110][111]

Amidst their coverage, television newscasts and news channels, have encouraged physical distancing on-set, remote work, and increased use of remote interviews – in order to comply with CDC guidelines, with in-person interviews (universally with the reporter both shooting and editing their story alone) often using improvised setups to allow distancing, including microphone extensions adapted from monopods and improvised PVC pipe booms. Local newscasts have faced similar changes, with stations often limiting newscasts to one studio anchor (or two if physically distanced), and newsrooms minimally staffed. Local newscasters began working from home in some cases, with a minimal number of staff remaining at the studio. Some meteorologists have already had this capability, in order to provide coverage of severe weather events during overnight hours if no one else is present at the studio.[112][113][114]

On March 15, a one-on-one debate for the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries took place between former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. After initially intending to hold the event at its original venue in Phoenix, Arizona with no audience or outside press, the debate was re-located to CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau to reduce unnecessary travel.[115][116] It was ultimately the only debate during the pandemic, as Biden clinched the Democratic nomination shortly thereafter. Biden subsequently conducted media appearances and meetings from his home in Delaware via videoconferencing.[117][118]

Two of the Big Three networks' national morning shows — ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today —continued to have in-studio anchors in New York City, although some anchors were temporarily moved home, including Today's Al Roker and Craig Melvin (as a precaution after a staff member of the program tested positive with mild symptoms),[119][120] and GMA's Robin Roberts (as a precaution due to past medical issues) and George Stephanopoulos.[121][122]

On March 11, the CBS Broadcast Center facility in New York City was closed for disinfection after two employees tested positive, resulting in CBS This Morning temporarily moving to the set of the CBS Evening News in Washington, D.C., and the newscasts of CBS-owned New York station WCBS-TV being produced and anchored remotely. While it re-opened on March 13,[123][124] it was closed once again on March 18. CBS This Morning subsequently moved to the set of The Late Show at the Ed Sullivan Theater, before switching to a remotely-anchored format by late-March to minimize staff amidst heightening cases in the region.[125] CBSN programs (including the CBS Weekend News) have been hubbed from several of CBS's other local stations, and WCBS-TV newscasts were once again been hubbed from Los Angeles sister station KCBS-TV.[126][127][128][129]

On June 22, in concert with phase 2 of New York City's lifting of restrictions, CBS This Morning returned to its studio at the CBS Broadcast Center, with minimized staff and at least one anchor continuing to host from home as a contingency. Fox News Channel's morning show Fox & Friends also resumed in-studio production, with social distancing enforced on-set.[121]

As the crisis became more obvious and activated, television news outlets began to increase their coverage of its impact at the local and national levels.[113] Fox News Channel added more live rolling news blocks to its schedule (including an extension of Fox News @ Night to 1:00 a.m. nightly, and a new overnight block anchored by Trace Gallagher), while Fox Business Network scuttled most of its prime time programming in order to carry additional coverage on its impact.[113][130] ABC replaced its daytime talk show Strahan, Sara and Keke with Pandemic: What You Need To Know, a special weekday program produced by ABC News Live and hosted by Amy Robach. After its late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! suspended production, ABC returned its long-running late-night newsmagazine Nightline to its original 11:35 p.m. timeslot from March 17 through April 10 (when it moved to 12:05 a.m., following the half-hour at-home episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!), with a focus on in-depth coverage.[131][113][132]

Most of NBC's owned-and-operated stations extended their local late-night newscasts to a full hour from March 16 to 27.[133] NBC's sister Spanish network Telemundo pre-empted its late-night sports program Titulares y Más to a later time in favor of Noticias Telemundo Presenta – Coronavirus: Un Pais en Alerta (Coronavirus: A Nation On Alert), along with temporarily extending its morning show Un Nuevo Día by 90 minutes, its midday newscast Noticias Telemundo Mediodía by an additional half-hour and its afternoon newsmagazine Al Rojo Vivo by one hour, in place of telenovela repeats and unscripted entertainment programs normally shown in some weekday daytime slots.[134][135]

On April 26, Netflix premiered a special limited season of its documentary series Explained, entitled Coronavirus, Explained. The first of the three planned episodes was produced in two-and-a-half weeks, and reused interview footage that had previously been recorded for an episode on pandemics in general.[136]

In This Together: A PBS American Portrait Story premiered on May 8, 2020 as part of a larger series based on viewer-submitted content.[137]

Media organizations have also faced direct impact from the pandemic. Several correspondents have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including CBS News foreign correspondent Seth Doane, quarantined in Rome,[113][138] ABC News correspondents Kaylee Hartung, quarantined in Los Angeles, and George Stephanopoulos (who contracted it asymptomatically from his wife Ali Wentworth while quarantined at home in New York City),[139][122] and CNN anchors Chris Cuomo, Brooke Baldwin, and Richard Quest.[140]

On March 27, Fox Business pundit Trish Regan departed the network, amid criticism of a controversial March 9 opening monologue on her nightly program Trish Regan Primetime, accusing Democrats of exploiting the pandemic solely to blame President Donald Trump for it, and launch another round of impeachment hearings.[141][142]

The suspension of nearly all sports leagues and competitions due to the pandemic has caused complications for broadcasters, as major events constitute a type of television programming that can frequently guarantee a large number of live viewers, and, in turn, advertising revenue.[143][144] The largest and most significant events also represent a major investment by broadcasters; in 2019, the total market for sports media rights in the United States was estimated at $22.42 billion, representing 44% of the international market.[145][143][146] CBS Sports and Turner Sports pay $785 million per-year to televise the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament – whose 2020 edition was scrapped only six days before it was scheduled to begin. In 2019, a 30-second commercial during the national championship game on CBS cost around $1.5 million, while CBS and Turner's contract to air the tournament accounts for nearly 72% of the NCAA's annual revenue.[143]

At the time of the suspensions, the NBA and NHL were also approaching their respective playoffs, Major League Baseball was approaching the beginning of its regular season, CBS Sports was approaching its spring event such as the Masters Tournament, and NBC Sports was also approaching its spring lineup (promoted as the NBC Sports Championship Season), including the Kentucky Derby, Indianapolis 500, French Open, and the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs—all postponed by the pandemic.[143] Analysts felt that a postponement or cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympics would have a major impact on NBCUniversal, due to the extensive rights fees it had paid to televise them, its large advertising inventory (NBC already announced that it had sold $1.2 billion in advertising for the Games), as well as the extensive use of NBCUniversal's various properties to promote the Olympics and vice versa; NBC was expected to use the Games to bolster the July launch of its new streaming video platform Peacock. On March 24, it was announced that the Games would be postponed to 2021.[143][144][147]

Sports-oriented cable networks have had to revise their schedules due to the lack of live programming, typically relying on reruns of classic events (to the point that The New York Times described it as having "turn[ed] every sports channel into ESPN Classic") and other original programming, and cutting down on studio programming due to the lack of sports news to discuss beyond the pandemic's impact.[148][149][146] An exception has been the National Football League, as it has already been in its off-season since early-February. The pandemic's surge in North America roughly coincided with the beginning of off-season business such as the free agency period, and the lead-up to the 2020 NFL Draft (which went on as scheduled, but with no public festivities, and conducted remotely).[150][148][149][151]

Some sports networks have also begun experimenting with other programming; ESPN acquired reruns of several recent editions of WWE's WrestleMania events (as part of the lead-up to WrestleMania 36, which had also been impacted by the pandemic),[152] and ESPN2 organized an early reprisal of its annual "ESPN8" stunt (inspired by the depiction of a fictitious, eighth ESPN channel in the film DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, which airs competitions that are "almost a sport") on March 22,[153] followed by a May 2 edition on the main ESPN network (headlined by a deadlift world record attempt by strongman and Game of Thrones actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson).[154][155]

Sports broadcasters have experimented with televised esports competitions, primarily featuring participants from their respective sports; Fox Sports and NASCAR partnered with iRacing to introduce the ENASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series — which features current and past drivers playing an online racing simulation game. The first event on March 22 attracted 903,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, making it the highest-rated esports broadcast on U.S. linear television.[156][157] A subsequent event simulcast the following week on Fox surpassed it with 1.339 million viewers.[158] The seven-week tournament followed the original NASCAR Cup Series schedule (including taking the Easter week off), ending May 9, 2020 with a race on a recreation of historic NASCAR venue North Wilkesboro Speedway, before the return of in-person Cup Series competition with The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway.[159]

The IndyCar Series and NBC Sports introduced a similar invitational series on the same platform,[160] while ESPN and the NBA organized an NBA 2K Players Tournament,[161] and Major League Soccer partnered with Fox to hold a televised FIFA 20 tournament, featuring MLS players and professional FIFA 20 players from the game's esports circuit.[162] In professional esports, ESPN2 would simulcast matches from the League of Legends Championship Series Spring playoffs.[163]

ESPN organized a televised H-O-R-S-E competition, featuring NBA and WNBA players competing via remote feeds from their personal courts.[164][165] On May 4, 2020, ESPN announced that it had reached a deal for exclusive U.S. rights to KBO League baseball from South Korea for the 2020 season, leveraging ESPN Major League Baseball personalities working from home.[166]

Thoroughbred racing also remained active on selected tracks; Fox Sports 1 is simulcasting the New York Racing Association's America's Day at The Races, while NBCSN partnered with TVG Network to simulcast its Trackside Live program on weekend afternoons.[167][168] TVG itself switched to remote production, and on-air personalities began incorporating explanations of technical terminology to accommodate new viewers.[169]

One of the few forms of sports-oriented programming in the United States to have continued regular broadcasts in some way has been professional wrestling. WWE suspended in-arena broadcasts of its weekly shows Raw and SmackDown beginning March 13, and moved them to a closed studio at its WWE Performance Center training facility in Orlando, with no audience and only essential staff present.[170][171] WWE's flagship pay-per-view WrestleMania 36 (originally scheduled for Raymond James Stadium in Tampa) took place under the same conditions (with two "cinematic" matches filmed at a second Orlando location, and at WWE's Stamford headquarters respectively).[172][173] From the lead-up to WrestleMania through April 10 (and including WrestleMania itself), WWE used a pre-recorded format for its programs, before switching back to live shows on April 13.[174][175] WWE NXT also returned to live broadcasts under similar conditions, from its main studio at Full Sail University in Orlando suburb Winter Park.[174][175]

The government of Florida issued an exemption to the state stay-at-home order on April 9, for staff of a "professional sports and media production" produced behind closed doors for a national audience. Mayor of Orange County, Florida Jerry Demings stated that the exemption was primarily intended for WWE, while Governor Ron DeSantis did not rule out its use by other sports bodies (arguing that viewers were "starved" for live sports content).[176][177][178] WWE's May pay-per-view Money in the Bank was also re-located from its originally-planned venue of Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore. The show's eponymous matches were filmed at WWE's headquarters on April 15,[179] with a new gimmick featuring the participants fighting through the building's floors and offices to reach a ring on its rooftop. The remainder of the event aired live from the Performance Center.[180][181]

All Elite Wrestling similarly moved its weekly Dynamite to the Daily's Place amphitheater in Jacksonville on March 18.[182] While closed to the public, other AEW performers were present as "spectators".[183][184] The show moved to a smaller location in Georgia on April 1, where additional recorded content was stockpiled through April 2.[185] AEW returned to Daily's Place for its Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 23 (re-located from its original venue, the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas), and also using neighboring TIAA Bank Field for a "Stadium Stampede" match.[186][187]

WWE began to add NXT talent and other Performance Center trainees as an on-set audience beginning with the May 25 Raw. They are spaced apart and placed behind glass panes.[183][184]

Regional sports networks have also been impacted; the sale of regional broadcast rights serve as a key source of revenue for many sports franchises.[143] Leagues have granted RSNs easier access to archive content to help fill schedules, and some networks have scheduled encores of games against opponents that their respective team would have played if the season had continued play as normal.[146][148][149] In 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (as Diamond Sports Group) acquired the RSN chain Fox Sports Networks for $9.6 billion (a transaction mandated as part of Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox). The group holds regional rights to 42 professional teams across the country, and voluminous high school and college sports rights.[188] Sinclair is also a joint venture partner with the Chicago Cubs in the team's new Marquee Sports Network.[189] Concerns have been raised that Diamond Sports' investment in the networks may be vulnerable due to the lack of live programming, with an analyst stating that Diamond "may be heading for a liquidity crisis even sooner than we anticipated", as carriage negotiations with major providers may be more difficult without live events.[190]

Sports channels typically demand the highest per-subscriber carriage fees of any cable networks in the country. There have been calls for broadcasters to compensate television providers for the lack of live programming that these fees typically cover; New York Attorney General Letitia James stated that it was "grossly unfair that cable and satellite television providers would continue to charge fees for services they are not even providing".[191]

In June 2020, citing the ending of its carriage agreements, the cancellation of NCAA tournaments, and uncertanties, ESPN announced that it would discontinue ESPN Goal Line/Bases Loaded, a part-time ESPN channel that carried rolling coverage of highlights and look-ins from regular-season college football games, and the NCAA baseball and softball tournaments.[192]