The Screen Actors Guild has moved its 27th annual awards show to avoid a conflict with the Grammys, which were rescheduled for the SAG Awards’ original date, March 14th. The 2021 SAG Awards will now broadcast April 4th on TNT and TBS at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. ET.
The Grammys were originally set to take place January 31st, but last week the Recording Academy decided to push back the show due to continued concerns over the spread of Covid-19, especially with conditions worsening in Los Angeles. After the announcement was made, however, SAG-AFTRA released a statement criticizing the Grammys for switching to the date they’d announced for their show back in July 2020.
Awards Season, Take 2 🎬 New Year, New Date, Same us
🤩#sagawards will be on @tntdrama and @tbsnetwork on Sunday, April 4 at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT ✨ pic.twitter.com/SDwYEwQ0xn
— SAG Awards® (@SAGawards) January 13, 2021
“We are extremely disappointed to hear of the conflicting date, March 14th, announced today for this year’s Grammy Awards telecast,” the statement read. “We announced the same date for the SAG Awards last July with the intent to give the greatest possible scheduling consideration for other awards shows. We expect the same consideration from sister organizations throughout the industry.”
In a January 6th interview on the Los Angeles TV station, KTLA, the Recording Academy’s interim president, Harvey Mason Jr., responded to the statement, saying: “I totally understand and sympathize with their statement. But we’re all functioning under this very unique time. We’re trying to accommodate an ever-changing global pandemic and make sure we’re protecting public health and protecting our community here in L.A. and around the country. There were really no perfect solutions, there was not a perfect weekend to move to with every other sporting event and large scale television event happening.”
As Variety notes, this is actually the second year in a row that the SAG Awards and the Grammys have faced a scheduling conflict. The SAG Awards were originally slated to take place January 26th, 2020, but were pushed up a week to January 19th after the Grammys announced they would take place on the 26th.
