SAG Awards opts to be the bigger show, reschedules to avoid conflict with the Grammys

To paraphrase Michelle Obama: “When a music industry tentpole goes low and reschedules its big show for the same night as your event, you go high and begrudgingly change your plans.” Last week (dear god, last fucking week), the Screen Actors Guild expressed its understandable disappointment in the Recording Academy’s decision to reschedule the Grammys for the same night as the SAG Awards. For a moment, we thought that the two would ultimately battle it out come March 14 (which would have been a logistical nightmare for us poor blogging saps that would have had to diligently report on both events, but we digress). Instead, SAG-AFTRA has decided to move its ceremony once again, this time to April 4, according to The L.A. Times.

The 27th SAG Awards will also go through some changes as the ceremony—which typically takes on a pretty standard, multi-hour award show format—gets trimmed down to one hour this year. “Throughout these challenging times, our industry and our union members have proven their creativity and resilience in discovering new methods of storytelling while adapting to new safety protocols and procedures,” SAG said in a statement on Wednesday. “We embrace that spirit as we reimagine the SAG Awards with a one-hour special that highlights and expands on our signature I Am an Actor opening and honors the outstanding performances of the past year.”

This is the second time that the ceremony has had to adjust its schedule. Back in July of last year, the association announced its initially postponement due to the pandemic. So when the Grammys recently announced their own big move for the same March date, it was a double shot of gall: Not only had SAG-AFTRA announced their claim on the date months ago, it had graciously moved their event in a similar conflict just last year.

So yeah, we were kind of hoping that SAG would stand its ground on this one, but we know that a move like that would be somewhat divorced for reality. After all, an affair on cable isn’t exactly hefty competition for a major ceremony on network television, so clinging to the date is pretty futile. And now, those actually interested in checking out both events can do so in relative comfort. Weird feud over, we suppose.

The SAG Awards will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS at 6 PM PST while the 2021 Grammys will air on CBS March 14.