Jimmy Kimmel may be preparing to host the 2020 Emmy Awards virtually on Sunday night, but he isn’t excited about it at all.

The late night television host explained to Deadline that he is dreading hosting the awards show because he already knows that few people will be watching.

“I know everyone will get crazy when I say this, but this will probably be the lowest-rated Emmys of all time,” said Kimmel, 52. “I would bet almost anything on it. Of course it will.”

“It doesn’t mean there aren’t still going to be a lot of people watching,” he added. “I mean, television is the lowest rated it has been. You look at some of the ratings you see in primetime now, I mean, people would be jumping out of buildings if you got ratings like this 10 years ago.”

Kimmel, who is also serving as executive producer of the awards show, feels that there is too much competition in the TV landscape these days, especially with all the streaming services.

“There are so many other things to watch. There’s so much great stuff on TV,” he explained. “To me, it’s never about the ratings, because if that’s what you’re focused on, you’re screwed. For me, it’s just try to make it as good a show as possible from beginning to end. Try to keep the audience with you, and you know, if all that works, it’s great, and if it doesn’t, what are you going to do? Fewer people are watching network television. It’s as simple as that.”

He went on to say that he knows that hosting the Emmys amidst the coronavirus pandemic will be an especially big “challenge.”

“Believe me, I’m not up for any challenge,” Kimmel continued. “If there’s a challenge, I would prefer to go take a nap, but I agreed to host the Emmys in, like, I don’t know, November of last year. So, you know, I got into this before the pandemic, and so things changed significantly from when I said yes, but I figured since I said yes, I had to stick with it. It’s going to be a more complicated job than it usually is.”

As for winners accepting their awards from home, Kimmel said that he hopes “they are surrounded by their families so that we have genuine emotion and excitement when they win, and that’s what I’m hoping, because we’re certainly not going to have that in the empty Staples Center.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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