SAG Awards Mad at Grammys for postponement to same date

About 100 million times a year, famous people sit down for extremely fancy dinners, where other famous people give each other awards, seemingly for no reason. The extravagant party circuit costs millions for its organizers, and at least hundreds of thousands for the brands that spill their merchandise on the many goodies-bag and rehearsal kiosks.

The festivities generally run like a big, well-oiled machine, except when industry wide sexual assault accounts derail things, or a pandemic implodes Tinseltown. Where most parties have assigned dates, a further devastating increase in coronavirus cases in Los Angeles has dashed desperate hopes that still remained for the rich and famous to congregate close to each other at the Dolby Theater. As vaccines barely spread to the masses, Hollywood’s powerful players have resorted to their lowest instincts: to fight over dinner reservations.

Tuesday, the Recording Academy, responsible for the Grammys every year, announced that they would publishplaces their annual festivities from January 31 to March 14. In joint remarks, the Recording Academy CEO, Executive Vice President and Executive Producer said: New guidelines from state and local governments have all led us to conclude that postponing our show is the right thing to do. The problem is that this date has already been recorded more than six months ago, by SAG-AFTRA.

The actor’s union issued a concurrent statement Wednesday morning at Entertainment Tonight, and told the outlet, “We are extremely disappointed to learn of the contentious March 14 date announced today for this year’s Grammy Awards telecast. If the tone was already precise enough, SAF-AFTRA added, “We expect the same consideration from sister organizations in the industry.” Fight, fight, fight!

The obvious thing here does nobody really watch these things so much anyway. Insider ratings of the past 10 years show a marked drop in audience for the average awards show, seeing only a brief increase in audiences for the Oscars and Golden Globes in the middle of the fallout by Harvey Weinstein’s lossand industry efforts to diversify procedures. Especially, smaller ‘home’ rewards shows increased online interest, with a pandemic ravaging the American landscape and a stream of streaming starving TV content masses, but it is not clear if the world is ready to undergo the big three on the awards circuit: Oscars, Grammysand Golden Globes.

As a date, March 14 seems reasonable enough, from the perspective of a disillusioned leader of Tinseltown. I can see a board thinking it’s just enough time to roll out vaccines to those who need this and perhaps stage some semblance of a dramatic “comeback” on the red carpet. Conversely, it is It is entirely reasonable that SAG-AFTRA actors should get upset over such a blatant scheduling conflict, given that most members have found regular work “difficult”, at least, during these 10 last months.

But as a foreigner, who recognizes that award shows are generally meaningless – or, as meaningful as anyone lets them be – I find this whole thing satirically Shakespearean. It’s a Hunger games of their own design!