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Remember that unplanned comedy sketch from Seth Rogen at the start of the Emmys this past Sunday (Sept. 19)? Well, Emmy producers are putting the emphasis on the “unplanned,” as they’re reportedly “still fuming” over Rogen’s snide remarks about the safety of the event. After he roasted the show’s perceived lack of COVID protocols, Emmy telecast producer Ian Stewart fired back at the comedian in a tell-all interview with Variety about the event.

“We have worked for months and months to make that a safe space,” Stewart said. “We’ve worked with all the health authorities. We were signed off by LA County, we came up with a plan with them. Those tables were distanced. Everyone was vaccinated. Everyone was negative tested in that audience. And also he had rehearsed. So he knew exactly what it was. So, I just felt it was an unfortunate misdirect from him. Because it wasn’t just our decision. This is the health authorities’ decision as well, to say that it’s a completely safe environment if you do all those things.”

While presenting the award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (which went to Ted Lasso‘s Hannah Waddingham, er “Waddington,” per Seth Rogen), Rogen went on a tangent about the amount of people crammed into the room.

“Let me start by saying: there’s way too many of us in this little room! What are we doing?” Rogen said, then accusing the producers of lying to him. “They said this was outdoors. It’s not! They lied to us. We’re in a hermetically-sealed tent right now. I would not have come to this. Why is there a roof?”

Stewart was not too pleased by this remark. Apparently, they had not lied to Rogen, nor anyone at the event. After Rogen’s comments, the producers were sure to have host Cedric the Entertainer clear everything up in his opening monologue.

“It made three months of very hard work and many, many discussions to get it absolutely right feel a little bit wasted, really,” Stewart said. “And then we just sort of played catch up. Because we wanted the audience to know how safe it was in there. We work in this industry, we’re desperately aware of COVID. I’ve done 50 productions nearly in COVID and not have people get sick. So, it’s deeply frustrating.”

The Emmys producer was also upset by The Queen’s Gambit director Scott Frank‘s on-stage surliness. After Frank took home the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series and began his speech, he dismissed the music playing him off stage three times.

“I don’t want to go through that again,” Stewart said. “It’s a simple equation. These people are professionals. They understand what’s going on, it’s their industry. It’s not a sports awards. So they know what they are doing and the simple fact is, they know there’s only a finite amount of time. I’d love them to be able to speak for half an hour if they wanted to. But we don’t have that time. So it’s a simple equation. If you think that you have to speak for four or five minutes, that means somebody else can’t. It’s just incredibly disrespectful to your fellow nominees.”

Yikes! We’ll have to see if these industry professionals take note for the 74th annual Emmys, which will take place around the same time in 2022.