After months of murk, the Tony Awards finally have a clear date: September 26. However, if you’ve been hoping to celebrate your favorite Broadway blockbuster after a long dark year, you’ll need to pay up: half of the event will be streamed exclusively to subscribers of Paramount+.

Honoring the last crop of shows to open before the pandemic, the Tonys will now be a two-parter. First, the majority of awards will be presented in a live ceremony (that’s the streamed exclusive), set to begin at 7:00 Eastern. Immediately following, a two-hour event billed as “Broadway’s Back!” will air on CBS. Described in a press release as “a live concert event, featuring superstar Broadway entertainers and Tony Award winners,” it will showcase performances from the Best Musical nominees, as well as the live presentation of awards for Best Play, Best Revival of a Play, and Best Musical.

The announcement caps a yearlong effort to set a new plan for the event, originally slated for June 7, 2020. Messaging has been muddy at best as the industry was decimated by the pandemic, with little clarity as to when (or if) it would be safe to reopen any of the nominated shows. Months of hedging led to a nominee announcement in October, and the promise of a digital ceremony later that autumn, which never materialized. Then, in March, the 700+ voters were suddenly invited to cast their electronic ballots, the results of which have been kept under lock and key by the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Now those tallies finally have a due date. The question is: will anyone tune in?

Traditionally, the Tonys have served as a national commercial for the $15 billion Broadway industry. Winners often see big box office returns after the event, and simply being featured in a performance slot can pay dividends when shows later launch national tours.

This year, however, only three of the fifteen nominated shows will be reopening in the fall: Moulin Rouge!, Jagged Little Pill, and Tina. All others will have closed as much as two years prior, making the event less about juicing a bumper crop, and more about enticing buyers back to Broadway as a whole. By the time the event airs, ten other shows will have resumed performances, including flagship brands Hamilton, Wicked, and The Lion King.

“To have tickets on sale, to have shows announcing their openings, and to have an announcement about the Tony Awards, feels exhilarating, and hopeful,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League, which co-presents the awards.

Viewership for the Tonys was already on the decline before the pandemic, with 2019’s hitting an all-time low of 5.5 million. This didn’t stop the industry from hitting record box office grosses, however, indicating a robust fanbase beyond the ratings. But given the dismal numbers for the Oscars and the Grammys during the pandemic, producers are girding their loins for a rough restart - especially since international tourism will likely stay depressed for months to come.

The bifurcated structure of this year’s ceremony was a compromise between CBS, the League, and the American Theatre Wing, which also co-presents the awards. The hope was to give all the nominees a moment of recognition after a brutal year (even if it’s behind a paywall), while blasting out the commercial message that Broadway is open for business, and hoping that locals flock while tourists regain confidence.

Key details such as the venue, the hosts, and performers were not announced. Sources at CBS confirmed that, yes, in order to watch the full event you will have to be a Paramount+ subscriber.

But the platform does offer free a trial subscription.