SAG Producers on Celebrating 30th Awards Ceremony After Historic Strike, Guild Wins

variety.com:

Todd Longwell The SAG Awards have long been one of the most important events on the kudocast calendar, but this year’s edition at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall Feb.

24 is especially significant. Not only does it mark the 30th year of the awards, it also comes on the heels of the longest strike in the history of the actors union, which represents some 160,000 performers across the U.S. “This is the first time that many of them have gathered together like this at a show after being on the picket line,” says Jon Brockett, SAG-AFTRA executive producer and liaison to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, who is executive producing the show with Baz Halpin, Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn of Silent House Prods. “I think the energy, the camaraderie and the pride will translate into their speeches and the feeling in the room.” The show has always had a reputation for being a relatively relaxed affair, and now that it’s being carried live globally on Netflix as part of a new multi-year agreement between the union and the streamer, the atmosphere looks to be even looser.

It won’t be the first time the SAG Awards have been presented without commercials or prohibition against profanity. After being broadcast by TNT and TBS for most of their history, they were live-streamed on Netflix’s YouTube channel last year.

But it will be a new experience for first-time SAG Awards producers on the Silent House team, who are looking for interesting ways to maintain traditional awards telecast rhythms, sans ad breaks. “We’ve been brainstorming a lot of really great ideas for some creative elements and interstitials that sort of take us away from the main stage at different times,” says Bracco.