SAG Awards looks to take less is more approach with hour-long pre-taped show

SAG Awards looks to take less is more approach with hour-long pre-taped show amid unprecedented award season hampered by pandemic

The 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards will be an hour long and taped ahead of time amid an unprecedented award season hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The show’s co-executive producer Todd Milliner said that amid the changing circumstances, SAG is taking a less-is-more approach to the proceedings.

‘We’re looking at trying to do a unique award ceremony in an hour and leave people saying, which they very rarely do [with an awards show], ‘Man, I wish we had more,’ Milliner told Variety on Tuesday. ‘It is a jam-packed hour, and we’re still trying to rob from one part to give to another part.

The latest: The 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards will be an hour long and taped ahead of time amid an unprecedented award season hampered by the coronavirus pandemic. Daveed Diggs and Lily Collins were seen announcing the nominees earlier this year 

‘When you start parsing out that hour, we didn’t really have time for a stage,’ he said.

The hour-long show is slated to have 13 awards handed out, comedy skits and the I Am An Actor segments previously seen on past years’ broadcasts.

The show will also include an In Memoriam segment following a year in which a number of Hollywood stars died, including Chadwick Boseman, Kelly Preston and Naya Rivera.

‘Honestly if none of the rest of the show was going to be live we thought, let’s put the rest of this time into those segments,’ said Milliner, who is executive producing the show with Kathy Connell and Sean Hayes.

In charge: SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris was seen during the nomination announcements

In charge: SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris was seen during the nomination announcements 

The show will also include an In Memoriam segment following a year in which a number of Hollywood stars died, including Chadwick Boseman, who was snapped at the 2019 event

The show will also include an In Memoriam segment following a year in which a number of Hollywood stars died, including Chadwick Boseman, who was snapped at the 2019 event

The awards were slated to be dispersed in pre-recorded segments on Zoom, with acceptance speeches.

Connell told the outlet that the early arrangements leaves the door open for spoilers to leak out, but she was hopeful nominees would keep the results to themselves.

‘We hope they respect the show enough and everybody does, and their fellow actors, that they don’t want to disappoint the audience at home by letting any surprises go,’ she said.

Two-person crews and remote streaming via laptops would be utilized in following strict COVID-19 protocol.

‘SAG Awards is a project where everybody has to work together,’ Hayes said, ‘so we respect all of those protocols that are in place just to make everybody feel safe.’

Actors already slated to appear on the show include Sterling K. Brown, Lily Collins, Ted Danson, Daveed Diggs and Mary Steenburgen.

Milliner added, ‘I can’t even tell you about a couple that we hope come together because it’s going to be fun.’

The SAG Awards are slated to air April 4 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on TNT and TBS.