When the winners take the stage to deliver their acceptance speeches at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, they won't have to worry about being escorted off the stage to ensure advertisers have time to sell their wares. Viewers won't have to time their bathroom and snack breaks during commercials.
In fact, there won't be any commercials: for the first time, the show will be broadcast live on Netflix.
For the SAG Awards, a key precursor in the path to the Oscars voted on by more than 119,000 members of the actors' union, the move to Netflix, with its 260 million subscribers worldwide, represents a significant boost after decades of struggle to reach a wide cable audience.
“This is a milestone for what started as the little engine that could run 30 shows ago,” says actress JoBeth Williams, who chairs the SAG Awards Committee, which oversees the program. “It's an exciting new format for us and brings us closer to what's happening now, what the world wants to see.”
Last year's SAG Awards were broadcast live on YouTube and Netflix's social media channels, reaching around 1.5 million viewers. Now, by hosting the ceremony on the Netflix platform itself, with its vast reach and formidable marketing capabilities, the streaming giant could bring the SAG Awards to a much larger audience than ever before. (And that's before even considering the drawing power of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon.)
Faced with a shrinking television audience, other awards shows have sought homes on streaming services, including the Academy of Country Music Awards on Prime Video. But as the first major film and television awards show broadcast live by a streaming giant, SAG's move to Netflix could herald changes in the entire awards show landscape, including the Oscars themselves.
“I think this sets a new model for this type of show,” says SAG-AFTRA executive producer Jon Brockett, who produces this year's awards alongside Baz Halpin, Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn of Silent House Productions. “If watching on a streamer ends up being a format that other people also adopt, so be it. But our goal is always to engage the audience and make a fun and entertaining show.”
The show's producers say the move to streaming will give the show, which is scheduled to run two hours and will include a Lifetime Achievement Award for Barbra Streisand, a greater sense of momentum while allowing more freedom in the format.
“On the broadcast, someone wins an award, a Steadicam follows them offstage, and that's usually when you go to commercial,” Bracco says. “We don't have to do that. “We're excited to be able to have these interstitials where we'll be able to follow the winner backstage and break that fourth wall and give viewers at home that behind-the-scenes feeling.”
SAG-AFTRA was looking for a location for its awards ceremony in 2022 when TNT had signaled it did not plan to renew its licensing agreement to air the show, the union said at the time. The SAG Awards had aired on TNT since 1998, but ratings were declining in their final six years on the cable network and TBS, with the exception of a post-pandemic surge in 2022. That year saw 1.84 million viewers. added viewers on TBS and TNT. according to Nielsen.
The SAG Awards live stream represents the latest in Netflix's efforts to grow its library of live events, bringing large audiences to its platform simultaneously for viewing by appointment. Some of the streamer's previous live events include Chris Rock. live comedy special and celebrity golf tournament”The Netflix Cup.”
Executive producer Jon Brockett with 2024 SAG Awards ambassadors Phil Dunster, left, and Taylor Zakhar Perez, right.
(Shutterstock for the SAG Awards)
“We're very excited about SAG,” said Brandon Riegg, vice president of nonfiction series, at a Netflix press event in Hollywood last month. “As far as award shows go, this one, to me, is the most public-oriented and the most public-friendly. They are celebrities. It's stars you love to watch, your favorite shows and movies, and all of that on a global stage. … I think live is an excellent tool in terms of expanding the portfolio: it is applicable to all the genres of content that we have.”
Still, the timing of the partnership is a little awkward. This year's SAG Awards come after a grueling summer of dual strikes in Hollywood led by writers and actors, many of whom protested daily outside Netflix headquarters. Some of the main issues with the strike had to do with data transparency between streaming services and how those platforms reward writers for successful shows. Some even considered labor action as the “Netflix strike.”
Planning for this year's SAG Awards was put on hold during the work stoppage. “As producers of the show, we had to basically go into hibernation during that period because we didn't know if the show was going to go forward,” Williams says.
Now that the strike is over, Williams believes union members are ready to put aside any lingering misgivings about the streaming giant and move forward. “I don't expect to get negative comments about it being on Netflix,” she says. “When the strike was resolved, we went back to working with Netflix, and they have been very accommodating and very collaborative. Naturally, we all have to work with the people we have been attacking; “That’s our business.”
As part of its multi-year deal, Netflix paid SAG-AFTRA about $7 million to license the SAG Awards, according to two people familiar with the deal who were not authorized to discuss it.
“This is inaccurate,” a Netflix spokesperson, who did not reveal any details about the pact, said in a statement to the Times. SAG-AFTRA declined to comment on the terms of the agreement.
Analysts say the partnership represents a potential win for both sides.
“If they can show that it attracted a lot more people than watched it last year on YouTube, what's to stop them from going to the Producers Guild Awards or even the Independent Spirit Awards?” said Travis Knox, associate professor of manufacturing at Chapman University. “If Netflix can legitimize it and get a larger audience, maybe it has created a new niche.”
Brandon Katz, industry strategist at Parrot Analytics, said about 58% of Netflix's U.S. audience is between 13 and 29 years old, according to his company's data.
“This is an opportunity to close that gap, potentially convert some remaining older linear subscribers into streaming subscribers and maybe introduce the SAG Awards to a slightly younger audience as well, so I think there are a lot of potential upsides and benefits,” Katz said.
“I think that, given the longevity of the SAG Awards and the hopeful cultural relevance they maintain, moving to Netflix is probably a better decision than staying on TNT, as the decline of pay television continues to accelerate rapidly,” he added.
It remains to be seen how many people will tune in live to watch the SAG Awards; The show will remain on the platform for 28 days after it airs, and some may choose to watch it on repeat later. Still, some industry observers say they're feeling more buzz around this year's SAG Awards, in part because they'll be on Netflix.
“We've seen Netflix's rise in full effect for licensed linear series, since 'Breaking Bad' to 'Suits,' as well as canceled linear series that Netflix rescued like 'Lucifer' and 'Manifest,'” Katz said. “At the end of the day, Netflix is the largest television network in the world, and that apparently comes with a lot of programming advantages.”
Netflix said it would promote the SAG Awards in a similar way to how it promotes other live events. The platform takes into account what users have seen before to make recommendations and promote trailers.
However, broadcasting a live program comes with significant technical challenges. Both Netflix and SAG hope to avoid a repeat of the technical hiccups that plagued last year's reunion episode of the dating reality series “Love Is Blind.” Viewers had logged onto Netflix in droves to watch the meeting live, but the broadcast was plagued with problems and was eventually cancelled, forcing many to wait until the next day to watch a recorded version.
SAG Awards executive producers Mark Bracco, Linda Gierahn and Baz Halpin.
(Shutterstock for the SAG Awards)
Speaking to The Times in December, a netflix executive He called the “Love Is Blind” reunion issue a “humbling moment” and added that the company has been focused on improving its technical capabilities. “We've learned from that and evolved from it,” the executive said.
The SAG Awards production team is fully confident that the show, which will return to its traditional home at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, will run smoothly and bring much-needed freshness to a format that has struggled to adapt to changing times. .
“The SAG Awards are incredibly unique: They're made by actors, for actors,” Halpin says. “From the moment guests enter the room, we want to create something that feels magical, elegant and sophisticated. Doing the first live show on Netflix feels like a perfect evolution of awards shows. “Netflix likes to make big changes and reach for the stars.”
Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
