The 75th annual Emmy Awards are pressing pause as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA continue their fights against Hollywood execs.
Multiple outlets reported on Thursday, July 27, that the 2023 Emmys have been postponed amid the unions’ simultaneous strikes. According to Variety, vendors and producers involved with the awards show were told their services will no longer be needed on September 18 — the show’s original airdate.
The TV Academy and Fox, the ceremony’s 2023 broadcaster, have not officially addressed the delay. (Us Weekly reached out to both parties for comment.)
This marks the first time the Emmys have been postponed in more than 20 years. CBS and the TV Academy put a halt on awards production in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, pushing the ceremony by two months.
Voting is reportedly moving forward as planned for this year’s Emmys, with members beginning to submit their votes on August 17. However, conversations are still in the works regarding a rescheduled date.
According to Deadline, two timeframes are being eyed for the ceremony. While a two-month delay has been floated, pushing the awards to November, it’s possible the Emmys may not air until January 2024.
Nominations were announced on July 12, with Succession earning a total of 27 nods for its fourth and final season. Ted Lasso leads the comedy categories with 21 nominations.
Hollywood’s labor dispute began in May when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced that their contract negotiation with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) had stalled. Among the union’s top concerns were fair wages and the use of artificial intelligence.
The AMPTP represents Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony. Two months after the WGA began to picket, SAG-AFTRA authorized its own strike. With both writers and actors taking a stand for their rights, the entertainment world has come to a standstill.
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher addressed the importance of the strike in a July 13 press conference. “This is a very seminal hour for us. I went in thinking that we would be able to avert a strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me,” she noted. “It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not millions of people all across this country and around the world. Not only members of this union, but people who work in other industries that service the people that work in this industry.”
She added: “We had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.”
The AMPTP, meanwhile, declared in a statement that it was “deeply disappointed” by the delayed SAG-AFTRA negotiations. “This is the Union’s choice, not ours,” the statement continued. “In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more.”
Celebs have turned out in droves to picket in solidarity with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, from Mandy Moore and Mariska Hargitay to Brian Cox and Jeremy Allen White.
