SAG Awards seem to take less and more approach with an hour-long pre-recorded program amid an unprecedented award season hampered by the pandemic
The 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards will be an hour long and will be recorded in advance amid an unprecedented award season hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The program’s co-executive producer, Todd Milliner, said that amid changing circumstances, SAG is taking a less-and-more approach to procedures.
‘We are trying to have a unique award ceremony in an hour and get people talking, which they rarely do [with an awards show], ‘Dude, I wish we had more,’ Milliner told Variety on Tuesday. ‘It is a crowded hour and we are still trying to steal from one part to give the other part.
The most recent: The 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards will be an hour long and will be recorded in advance amid an unprecedented award season hampered by the coronavirus pandemic. Daveed Diggs and Lily Collins were seen announcing the nominees earlier this year
“When you start analyzing that hour, we really didn’t have time for a stage,” he said.
The hour-long show is scheduled to have 13 awards delivered, comic skits and the I Am An Actor segments seen previously in previous years’ broadcasts.
The show will also include an In Memoriam segment after a year in which several Hollywood stars died, including Chadwick Boseman, Kelly Preston and Naya Rivera.
“Honestly, if none of the rest of the show would be live, we thought, let’s put the rest of that time into those segments,” said Milliner, who is the show’s executive production with Kathy Connell and Sean Hayes.
Responsible: SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris was seen during the appointment announcements
The show will also include an In Memoriam segment after a year in which several Hollywood stars died, including Chadwick Boseman, who was photographed at the 2019 event
The awards were scheduled to be distributed in pre-recorded segments at Zoom, with acceptance speeches.
Connell told the channel that the first arrangements left the door open for spoilers to leak, but she was hopeful that the nominees would keep the results to themselves.
“We hope that they respect the show enough and everyone does, and their fellow actors, so that they don’t want to disappoint the audience at home, letting the surprises pass,” she said.
Crews of two people and remote streaming via laptops would be used according to the strict COVID-19 protocol.
“SAG Awards is a project where everyone has to work together,” said Hayes, “so we respect all protocols in place just so that everyone feels safe.”
Actors already scheduled to appear on the show include Sterling K. Brown, Lily Collins, Ted Danson, Daveed Diggs and Mary Steenburgen.
Milliner added: ‘I can’t even talk about a couple that we hope to be together because it’s going to be fun.’
The SAG Awards are scheduled to air on April 4 at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT on TNT and TBS.