Will the Emmys Be Delayed? How the Potential SAG Strike Could Threaten TV Awards Season
variety.comMichael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Emmys have been here before. In 1980, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (back then, they were two separate unions negotiating a joint contract with the studios but are now the combined SAG-AFTRA) went on strike for three months.
That year’s Emmy telecast happened to fall right in the middle of it. Actors boycotted the ceremony, but for some reason, the TV Academy went ahead with the Emmy telecast anyway.
Famously, only one out of 52 nominees attended: Powers Boothe, who said when accepting his trophy for playing cult leader Jim Jones: “This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest.” Steve Allen and Dick Clark (both of whom donated their hosting fees to the SAG emergency fund) hosted that year’s ceremony after original hosts Michael Landon, Bob Newhart and Lee Remick bowed out due to the strike.
Variety called that year’s show a “lackluster affair,” and noted that the TV Academy aimed to fill the lack of big names with behind-the-scenes coverage of various crafts.
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