Tony Awards return to Radio City Music Hall with P!NK hosting

P!NK will front Broadway’s biggest sales pitch when the 79th Annual Tony Awards return to Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 7. The ceremony will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+, putting the industry’s most visible night back in a venue built for scale, spectacle and national attention.

That setting matters for a Broadway business still measuring its post-pandemic footing. The Tonys are not just trophies; they are a marketing engine for the commercial theater market, a live telecast designed to sell tickets, extend shows’ cultural reach and remind audiences that Broadway is still a destination business. This year’s red-carpet move to Rockefeller Center, along with the Tony Nominee Luncheon at the Rainbow Room and the official after-party there, keeps the event anchored in Midtown Manhattan’s entertainment economy.

The nomination process itself shows how carefully the awards try to balance prestige with industry discipline. The eligibility cutoff for the 2025-2026 Broadway season was Sunday, April 26, 2026, and nominations were announced on Tuesday, May 5. Nominations in 26 competitive categories were chosen by an independent committee of 55 theatre professionals, while the Tony Awards Administration Committee met four times during the season and confirmed 13 Broadway productions at its final eligibility meeting on April 29. Uzo Aduba and Darren Criss announced the nominees from Sofitel New York.

The Tonys are produced by Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, two organizations that sit at the center of the commercial and nonprofit theater world. The awards have been part of American theater since 1947, when they were named for Antoinette Perry, the actress, stage director and philanthropist who helped found the American Theatre Wing. The show first reached network television in 1967, turning a niche trade honor into a national cultural event.

That long television history is why the Tonys still matter as a business indicator. Broadway has always relied on star power, and this year’s host, P!NK, is a reminder that the ceremony now competes for attention with every other live entertainment property in the country. The awards’ touchstones, from the absence of a Best Play prize in the first year to South Pacific becoming the first and only show to sweep all four musical acting categories in 1950, underline how the Tonys have evolved with the industry they celebrate.