Harvey Mason Jr., chair and interim president/CEO of the Recording Academy, recently toldEntertainment Tonightthat the decision was made “based on the decline of the health circumstances around Los Angeles and the country” amid the ongoing pandemic.

“It didn’t feel like the right time to be having the show on Jan. 31,” he said. “COVID-19 has had a big impact on our planning process and how we’re putting the show together. As we move to our March 14 date, it’ll give us a little more flexibility to watch what happens and to have more conversations with health officials and continue to evolve the show.”

After the news of the new date was revealed, the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards responded to the date change saying the organization was “disappointed” hear that the music awards show has been scheduled on the same day theSAG Awardsis expected to air.

“We are extremely disappointed to hear of the conflicting date, March 14th, announced today for this year’sGrammy Awardstelecast. We announced the same date for theSAG Awardslast July with the intent to give the greatest possible scheduling consideration for other awards shows,” SAG saidin a statement on Tuesday. “We expect the same consideration from sister organizations throughout the industry.”

In his statement, Mason Jr. clarified that even the March 14 date is not “set in stone” — explaining that behind the scenes, organizers are deliberating whether to have an in-person audience, whether everything will be live and more run-of-show technicalities that need to shift based on evolving public health protocols.

“The show’s fluid, and we’ve done that on purpose so that we can try to put on the best show,” he said.

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“Right now we’re not planning on anybody attending, as far as an audience is concerned. I think there will be more outdoor performances,” he said. “I think there will be multiple locations, giving us the flexibility to have more than one artist at a time.”

“We’ll obviously adjust accordingly, but for us it’s really about the health and well-being and safety of our artist community, staff and people working on the show. That’s of paramount importance to us,” added Mason Jr. “There will be live performances as planned now, but we don’t know going forward what we’ll be allowed to do.”

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source: people.com