SAG Awards agree to reschedule to avoid Grammys conflict
The awards show that celebrates the year's best acting achievements will move to accommodate music's biggest night
It appears that the actor’s union did music’s governing body a nice solid so that they didn’t have to compete for viewers on both of their biggest nights. The Screen Actor’s Guild, which puts on the SAG Awards, has agreed to change their annual ceremony to April to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Grammy Awards.
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Per Deadline, the Grammys announced last week that they would be rescheduling their ceremony from Jan. 31 to 8 p.m. to March 14, due to the rapidly escalating COVID-19 outbreak in Los Angeles where the awards would take place. Problem was, the SAG Awards were already set to take place on that day and time.
“We announced the same date for the SAG Awards last July with the intent to give the greatest possible scheduling consideration for other awards shows,” SAG-AFTRA, the acting union, said in a terse statement shortly after the Grammys made their announcement. “We expect the same consideration from sister organizations throughout the industry.”
Evidently, some brokering was done behind the scenes and the SAG Awards will now be aired on its usual networks, TNT and TBS on Sunday, April 4 at 9 p.m. as a one-hour special instead of its usual two-hours. Nominations will be announced on Feb. 4.
“Throughout these challenging times, our industry and our union members have proven their creativity and resilience in discovering new methods of storytelling while adapting to new safety protocols and procedures,” the SAG Awards said in a statement. “We embrace that spirit as we re-imagine the SAG Awards with a one-hour special that highlights and expands on our signature “I Am an Actor” opening and honors the outstanding performances of the past year.”
The awards, which are voted on by and exclusively for actors, have become another significant entertainment event in recent years in the run-up to the Oscars, along with the Golden Globes. In 2019, the Black Panther cast won a SAG for Best Cast in a Motion Picture. The late Chadwick Boseman spoke on behalf of the ensemble in a heartfelt acceptance speech.
“When I think of going to work every day, and the passion and the intelligence, the resolve, the discipline that everybody showed, I also think of two questions that we all have received during the course of multiple publicity runs,” Boseman said. “And one is: Did we know that this movie was going to get this kind of response, meaning was it going to make a billion dollars, was it still going to be around during this awards season? And the second question is: Has it changed the industry? Has it actually changed how this industry works, how it sees us? And my answer to that is, to be young, gifted and black.”
Boseman continued: “We all know what it’s like to be told that there is not a place for you to be featured, yet you are young, gifted, and Black. We know what it’s like to be told to say there’s not a screen for you to be featured on, a stage for you to be featured on. We know what it’s like to be the tail and not the head. We know what it’s like to be beneath and not above.
“And that is what we went to work with everyday, because we knew not that we’d be around during awards season or that it would make a billion dollars, but we knew that we had something special that we wanted to give the world, that we could be full human beings in the roles that we were playing, that we could create a world that exemplified a world we wanted to see.”
The 63rd annual Grammys, hosted by Trevor Noah, will be aired on CBS on Sunday, March 14 at 8 p.m. and broadcast without an audience or nominees on site. Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” project made her the year’s top nominee with nine nods. Megan Thee Stallion who shares B’s Houston, Texas, hometown also shared the mic with her on the “Savage” remix. The two are nominated together in three categories for the song – Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, and Record of the Year.
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The Oscars have moved to April 25, the latest date they’ve ever been held likely in the hopes that an eased pandemic will allow for one of their biggest attractions – the red carpet appearances.
Watch Boseman’s SAG Awards speech below:
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