Everyone tuned in on Sunday night to see exactly how the Emmys were going to do this mid-pandemic, and for a moment, it seemed like they had made a grave error.

Host Jimmy Kimmel walked out on stage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles to rapturous applause, and Twitter collectively went “huh?”

Had Hollywood secretly, collectively agreed to flout the social distancing directives and pack into the auditorium, finally confirming that coronavirus is the hoax far-right Facebook insists it is?

“Welcome to the Pand-Emmys!” Jimmy opened. “It’s great to finally see people again. Thank you for risking everything to be here. Thank me for risking everything to be here.”

“You can’t have a virus without a host… Why are we having an award show in the middle of a pandemic? And what the hell am I doing here?” he asked, to perfectly timed laughter. “This is the year they decide they have to have a host?”

No — it had to be old footage from years previous… but that meant they had edited the crowd to laugh, groan and applaud along with Jimmy, and Twitter quickly went from confused to very irritated.

Of course, when the camera then cut to Jimmy Kimmel himself also in the crowd, the jig was up.

The lights went up to reveal a completely empty theater, with only the host and a few rows of cardboard cutouts. Oh, and the real Jason Bateman, pretending to be a cardboard cutout.

“Of course I’m here all alone, of course we don’t have an audience,” Jimmy admitted. “This isn’t a MAGA rally, it’s the Emmys.”

After informing Bateman that he had to laugh at all his jokes if he stayed, he then left the building too.

With that, Jimmy kicked off the awards proper — but not before demanding one more standing ovation from the suddenly rematerialized crowd.