Lighting Designers Noah Mitz and Will Gossett balanced the scale of television’s biggest night with an intimate new setting for nominees—all while navigating a major venue transformation between broadcasts.

Bringing the Emmy Awards to life requires lighting that can serve many roles at once: complementing an expansive scenic design, shaping the broadcast’s wide shots and ensuring that every nominee looks their best on camera. For this year’s awards, Lighting Designers Noah Mitz and Will Gossett delivered across each of those demands while adapting their design to two different seating configurations.

NBC introduced tables for the Primetime Emmy Awards, replacing the venue’s traditional theater seating to create a warmer, more intimate environment for the nominees. Between the Creative Arts and Primetime Emmy Awards, production made the transformation, requiring the lighting team to completely relight one of the broadcast’s most visible spaces within a short turnaround.

“Table seating was a twist,” said Mitz. “NBC wanted a more intimate environment for the nominees.”

Mitz and Gossett supported the new configuration with individually controllable table lights. In addition to becoming part of the overall visual design, the fixtures added warmth to nominees’ faces and gave the sweeping wide shots greater depth.

Executing the concept required a tightly coordinated changeover. The Creative Arts Emmys, held September 5 and 6, used the venue’s existing theater seats. Before the Primetime Emmy Awards, the production team installed decking and table seating throughout the hero nominee area.

The lighting team relied heavily on VL2600 fixtures to adapt the design to the new seating plan. Their versatility allowed the designers to reposition and refine the lighting for the tables within the limited turnover time.

The lighting was also closely integrated with the production’s scenic architecture. A scenic header extended across the full 180-foot width of the set, framing the wide, serpentine LED screens below it.

MAC One wash lights were incorporated directly into the header. Their compact size, low weight and high output allowed the fixtures to fit within the scenic structure while delivering the necessary coverage across the expansive set.

PRG was proud to support Mitz, Gossett and the entire lighting team as they transformed the venue between the Creative Arts and Primetime Emmy Awards and brought the design for television’s biggest night to life.

Production Credits

Lighting Designers: Noah Mitz and Will Gossett
Lighting Directors: Jeff Behm and Morgan Harrington
Lighting Directors/Programmers: Andy O’Reilly and Brian Marshall
Lighting Assistant: Karley Ferguson
Gaffer: Matt Benson
Best Boy: Flavio Kim
Lighting Technician: Daniel Vargas
PRG Technicians: Jason Trowbridge, Geoff Smith and Justin Colbert
PRG Account Executive: Tony Ward
PRG Project Manager: Patrick Osuna