With Omicron Surging, the Grammys Are on Hold and Sundance Will Go Entirely Virtual

With schools and offices closing their doors due to the Covid-19 omicron variant, the entertainment industry is also regrouping.

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards, music’s top honors, will be postponed indefinitely because of Covid-19, the Recording Academy and CBS said Wednesday. Last year’s show was also delayed.

“Holding the show on January 31st simply contains too many risks,” the Recording Academy and broadcaster CBS said in a statement.

Separately, the organizers of the Sundance Film Festival said they’ll go entirely virtual later this month. The Sundance Institute had been pressing ahead with its first hybrid festival in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 20-30 but shifted gears because of the recent surge in cases.

“The omicron variant with its unexpectedly high transmissibility rates, is pushing the limits of health safety, travel and other infrastructures across the country,” the institute said.

While the new strain of Covid-19 is disrupting public events, it isn’t expected to slow film and TV production, Jason Kilar, the head of AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, said Wednesday. Much of the industry shut down in 2020.

“We do believe we will be able to produce at the clip we have been producing in 2021,” Kilar said in an interview. “This won’t be a situation like we saw in 2020.”