In an era of socially distanced awards shows, the SAG Awards will take it a step further and present its awards as a pretaped broadcast, with the nominees discovering who’s won days before the April 4 airdate on TNT and TBS.
The broadcast will be a heavily scaled-down version of the awards ceremony that traditionally takes place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, with no host or red carpet. Instead of a gala event, the nominees will gather via Zoom chat and will give their acceptance speeches in between comedy skits and the traditional “I Am An Actor” monologues from the year’s nominees. The show will then be edited down to a tight one-hour broadcast that will end within its time slot.
The announcement comes days after the Golden Globes held its socially distanced ceremony live, with hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting in New York and Los Angeles before a small live audience consisting of vaccinated first-responders. The show had some technical difficulties with the videoconferencing winners, as Daniel Kaluuya had problems with his sound while giving his acceptance speech for “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Kaluuya is among the nominees in this year SAG Awards, with the nominations for Outstanding Cast going to “Da 5 Bloods,” “Minari,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “One Night in Miami.” Presenters at this year’s awards include Sterling K. Brown, Lily Collins and Daveed Diggs.
The pretape announcement was first reported by Variety.