Actors are used to rejection, but SAG just got a big one with TNT & TBS canceling its awards telecast.
SAG’s been a TNT event since 1998 (and since ’07 on TBS), but its ratings have eroded badly — as they have for all awards shows, especially the Oscars. This year’s SAG telecast drew just 1.8M viewers.
Those ratings were ill-timed since T & T is now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Its new management has promised $3B in post-merger savings, so scrapping the SAG festivities was a no-brainer.
It could, however, turn out to be SAG’s lucky day. However good a show SAG produces, it’s not going to get 25M viewers on T & T. But it could on NBC, perhaps with some Peacock streaming. NBC could grab SAG to replace the tarnished Golden Globes show that it put on hiatus this year.
SAG celebrates movies & TV and is the one awards show that could easily equal or surpass the star wattage of the old Globes party (pictured – Brad Pitt & Jennifer Anniston at SAG 2020). Everybody in SAG’s an actor, so SAG’s got ’em if you want famous faces drinking champagne!
It also helps that viewers recognize the SAG-AFTRA guild’s Hollywood brand name. Its highly diversified group of about 124,000 members is far more credible than the 90-odd HFPA members who voted for the Globes. Best of all, SAG is not overshadowed by allegations of improprieties as the HFPA was last year.