LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7 -- PAT NASON, UPI Hollywood Reporter The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has canceled the 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards telecast, scheduled for Sunday night over CBS-TV.

The Emmy Awards had originally been scheduled for Sept. 16, but were postponed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

Speaking with reporters at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, where the major part of the telecast was to have originated, Academy chairman and CEO Bryce Zabel said no decision had been made yet whether to reschedule the event a second time.

"I'm not at this point calling it a cancellation," said Zabel. "I'm looking at all the options."

For now, the Academy will keep the names of winners under seal.

Zabel said the decision was not motivated by any specific threat, but came in reaction to the announcement that the U.S. had launched military strikes against targets in Afghanistan.

CBS president Les Moonves said the decision to cancel the ceremonies came quickly after the retaliatory attacks were announced.

"I did speak to various producers from shows throughout town," said Moonves. "There was a general feeling that people were uncomfortable, and that this was not a day to celebrate -- not a day to go up there and accept the award for best comedy."

Moonves said "certain high-profile shows and casts" -- which he would not name -- made it clear they did not want to participate in a telecast on the day America was launching a war.

"They weren't being jerks, they weren't being prima donnas," said Moonves. "They just didn't feel appropriate coming down here tonight."

Zabel agreed.

"It would be the wrong thing to do to come together tonight," he said.

"To call this a no-win situation is the understatement of the year," said Moonves. "This is a terrible thing. I think we're all sick to our stomachs."

But Moonves said it is important to keep the issues in perspective.

"You realize we're in the television business," he said. "This is small potatoes compared to what's going on out there in the world."

Moonves said he and the others involved in making the decision about Sunday's show considered several alternatives to cancellation, including going ahead with the ceremonies but not televising them.

"How can you honor television and not televise it?" said Moonves in explaining why that alternative was rejected.

The show planned for Sunday was to have been a low-key affair, de-emphasizing the glamour normally associated with awards shows and taking a more serious look at the role of TV in America lives.

Legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite was to have opened the telecast from New York, where several presenters were also to have appeared in the NBC studio where Conan O'Brien tapes his late-night show.

Cronkite's prepared remarks would have addressed America's history of surviving through difficult times during its 225-year history, and the role TV has played in making Americans witnesses to their own history. Moonves suggested that Cronkite might appear instead during Sunday'stelecast of the newsmagazine, "60 Minutes."

Don Mischer, the Emmy-winning producer of the telecast, said when he told Cronkite about the decision to cancel, the veteran newsman said, "You know that feels completely appropriate. That's the right thing to do."

Mischer suggested that viewers might yet see some of the material that was produced for the telecast, including segments that had already been produced "that are not typical of an Emmy show," and a tape of a rehearsal of New York city police officer Daniel Rodriguez singing "God Bless America," backed by a choir in Los Angeles.

He said the telecast planned for Sunday had "six or seven emotional high points that would have meant a lot to the American people" if the telecast had gone as scheduled.

"It would be a shame if they were not seen in some way by Americans," said Zabel, "because they explain how we feel at this point in the nation's history."

Mischer said that emcee Ellen DeGeneres was "very emotional and somewhat devastated" when he told her that show would not go on.

"She put a lot of effort and a lot of time and a lot of personal emotion into this," said Mischer, "and would have done an incredible job tonight."

Also called off was the Unity Dinner, the new designation given this year to the traditional Governor's Ball following the awards ceremonies. Officials said meals that had been prepared for approximately 3,000 people were being offered to various Los Angeles area agencies that serve the poor.

"We feel very good that at least someone will be eating them tonight," said Zabel.

The decision to cancel the telecast will probably cost the Academy and the network millions of dollars, but Moonves said no one knows yet what the eventual bottom-line damage will be.

"We don't know," said Moonves, "and believe it or not, it was secondary to the Academy and to CBS."

Zabel said it's going to be difficult for the Academy to decide what to do about the 53rd Emmys now.

"The issue of carrying on has been the biggest issue that we've faced since Sept. 11," he said. "There's a difference between carrying on and doing something that is inappropriate at this time, and we reached that line this morning."

Zabel said the Academy and CBS are "not concerned that we're sending the wrong message right now the message is that things have changed. America is visibly at war right now."

"The decision to go on after Sept. 11 was about trying to do what we could to lift America's spirits," said Zabel. "We do feel like we made the right decision to try to carry on and we've made the right decision today to put a stop to it."

Moonves said any decision to reschedule the telecast would be an extremely complicated matter.

"This depends on a lot of networks, a lot of executives, the Academy there's a lot of factors that go in," said Moonves. "That's why we can't just say it's over. That wouldn't be appropriate.

Zabel said if the telecast never goes through, the Academy will still get the awards into the hands of the winners.

"If we have to drive them over to someone's house and shake hands with them," he said, "we will do that."