The Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the labor union that merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) back in 2012, represents film and television performers. So naturally, those performers need their own awards show. The 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will take place on Saturday, February 24, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
The tradition of the union honoring its own began in 1995. What sets this awards show apart is how the nominees and winners are chosen. Every year, two nominating committees are formed at random from active members, one for television and one for film. These 2,500 people are only allowed to serve every eight years. Once the nominees are chosen, the larger membership votes on the winners.
Actors love winning a SAG Award because it’s meaningful to be chosen by a group of one’s peers. Beyond the immediate prestige, these awards are also an important predictor of who will win Oscars in the acting categories.
And here’s another reason to tune in to the 2024 SAG Awards: The ceremony will feature many of Hollywood’s best and brightest. For the majority of its tenure, the show did not have a host, and this year is no exception. Instead 30 presenters will do the honors, including Emily Blunt, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, Sterling K. Brown, Jessica Chastain, Robert Downey Jr., and more. The show will be opened by Idris Elba. Jennifer Aniston will present the SAG Life Achievement Award to icon Barbra Streisand.
This is a historic year for the awards, which are going to be streamed live exclusively on Netflix for the first time. You can find a direct link to the program here. If you’re not already a Netflix subscriber, the cheapest plan is $6.99 a month.
In other words, there is no free way to watch this year’s ceremony, even for SAG-AFTRA members. This big move was supposed to happen last year but the technology wasn’t quite there yet. Instead, it was live-streamed on Netflix’s YouTube channel. The show’s previous home was on TBS and TNT.
Netflix has attempted to live stream events in the past with mixed results. In April 2023, the streaming service attempted to do a live reunion of its popular reality series Love Is Blind. It was delayed for an hour because of technical issues. Its first time around, with Chris Rock’s special Selective Outrage, went much smoother, but no one remembers the wins. Let’s hope all the kinks are worked out for Saturday.
