After wildfires wrecked havoc across Los Angeles throughout the first part of 2025, producers for Sunday’s SAG Awards hope the 31st annual ceremony can be a “warm hug” for the acting community.
“It’s been such a trying beginning of the year for so many people, and I think we just want the show to be a warm hug for everyone — to be able to take a couple of hours, smile a little, have a laugh or two,” Mark Bracco, who executive produces the show along Silent House’s Baz Halpin, Linda Gierahn and Jon Brockett, told TheWrap.
Though the wildfires led to the cancellation of the nominations announcement event during the first week of January, the producers decided to keep the show on for its Feb. 23 date as a way to support the city’s rebuilding process, with Gierahn noting, “It was so important for us to really be mindful of all the people behind the scenes that are working in this industry, and really count on award show season.”
Brockett added that keeping the show as planned translates to work for everyone from hair and makeup teams to drivers and hotel workers, saying, “It’s part of this economy we wanted to help keep going.”
In the wake of the wildfires and the subsequent relief efforts forming across the city, Brockett realized how much he loved Los Angeles, admitting he, alongside many other Angelenos, felt like his time in the city has been a “roller coaster.”
“I felt a connection to the city that I hadn’t before, and I think we started looking at the show through that lens,” Brockett said. “This is really a love letter to L.A. — a love letter to its resilience, its determination. It’s the heart of the entertainment industry.”
With this goal in mind, Bracco explained that this year’s theme centers on L.A. as the “city of dreams and dream-makers,” noting “a lot of actors come here to realize their dreams and make them come true.” As the producers embrace stories of humble beginnings and early starts to careers that led the nominees and other attendees to be in a room full of accomplished actors, they decided to lean into the nostalgia factor for this year’s ceremony.
“We really want to lean into the to the nostalgia of your favorite movies, your favorite shows,” Bracco said. “We love … that the actors love to talk about how they got their start, and how L.A. was such an important part of so many people realizing their dreams.”
That nostalgia will certainly be on display when actor, producer, author and activist Jane Fonda receives the SAG Life Achievement Award, with Gierahn noting her awe while putting together the package for Fonda’s award. “You’re reminded of her amazing career that’s still going,” Gierahn said. “I was blown away when I was looking back on her career.”
Naturally, the “I am an actor” segment, which has been a tradition of the SAG awards for the past 30 years, will remain a “signature moment” on Sunday, though Brockett shared the lineup for the moment will be kept under wraps.
With last year’s SAG Awards coming months after the turbulent actors’ strike, the destruction and grief in the wake of the wildfires gave the producers “even more of a mission to bring everyone together” for Sunday’s ceremony.
“It’s very familial. It feels like a reunion on steroids,” Brockett said. “It’s just actors, so everybody feels like it’s their room, it’s their night, it’s their party. There’s just this comfort, there’s a sense of ease in the room, but also this electricity, because they’re all kind of able to connect with each other.”
That mission of togetherness extends to the audience of the Netflix livestreamed event, with Bracco saying, “Everybody watching at home … [can] feel this sense of love and camaraderie between this group of people and these artists who make all the TV shows and the movies that you love.” That might include a couple more reunions, Bracco noted, after receiving positive feedback from last year’s reunions, including “The Devil Wears Prada.”
As Kristen Bell, who is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for “Nobody Wants This,” takes the helm as host, the producers teased she has “a lot of friends that are that are nominated,” including co-star Adam Brody.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with her connections to people and kick off the show in a way that the SAG Awards hasn’t really kicked off in the past,” Bracco said. “She’s coming to have fun and to play.”
The 31st annual ceremony marks the second time that Netflix will livestream the SAG Awards, once again allowing for the show not to be confined by strict telecast slots nor commercial breaks. The biggest benefit to that is not playing off winners during their speeches, Brockett said.
“We just don’t want to cut them off — we never have, and we won’t,” Brockett said. “We have the luxury of being on Netflix that allows us a little extra time, so that’s something we’re absolutely going to continue.”
Unlike other broadcasted awards show that deliver ratings through Nielsen, viewership for the SAG Awards won’t be immediately available via Netflix, with Brockett noting Netflix is “famously opaque” about their viewership, though the streamer has been increasing its transparency. Last year, 2024 SAG Awards failed to crack into Netflix’s most-watched TV programs for the week, and Netflix’s semi-annual data dump revealed the 2024 show had amassed 1.8 million views in the first half of 2024.
“We’re so lucky to be on Netflix and have a global audience,” Brockett said. “Our goals are to just create the best, most entertaining show to both our core audience and to a hopefully newer audience.”
