Hollywood Strikes Push Emmys Date For The First Time Since September 11th Attacks - Looper

Hollywood Strikes Push Emmys Date For The First Time Since September 11th Attacks - Looper,As the double strike between the WGA and SAG-AFTRA soldiers on, Hollywood is rescheduling major events... including the 2023 Emmys, which will air next year.

Hollywood Strikes Push Emmys Date For The First Time Since September 11th Attacks – Looper

As the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes continue, the Emmys have been postponed for the first time in over two decades.

The last time the Emmys were rescheduled from their normal September air date, it was in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks that felled the World Trade Center and killed thousands in 2001. Now, with actors remaining firmly on the picket lines and refusing to promote any of their projects as they stand by the writer’s guild and fight for their own protections, the Emmys have been pushed to January. The ceremony will now air on January 15, 2024 — a Monday evening — on Fox. This was reported by Variety, among other outlets.

In the same report, Variety notes that the Television Academy and Fox wanted to move the Emmys to November, but January seemed safer, as the strikes show no signs of stopping. Variety also previously reported that vendors for the upcoming Emmys were told not to expect the ceremony any time soon.

Awkwardly, the Golden Globes, which traditionally take place between the Emmys and the Oscars as they bridge the gap between television and film awards, will air one week before the Emmys on January 7, and there will even be overlap between the two with the Creative Arts Emmys rescheduled to January 6 & 7.

The SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes are still going strong

Jose Perez/bauer-griffin/Getty Images

Since early May of 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America has been striking against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or the AMPTP, as the latter organization has refused to pay writers fair residuals and hasn’t been willing to rule out the use of artificial intelligence, among many other issues. Grappling with the same issues, especially when it comes to AI and residuals, SAG-AFTRA officially joined the WGA on July 14, 2023, putting a screeching halt to all ongoing publicity (the cast of “Oppenheimer” even walked off their own red carpet before their premiere).

The writers and stars of your favorite shows have been picketing en masse since SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA in their fight, and as of this writing, there’s honestly no end yet in sight. As SAG-AFTRA has continued reporting on their talks with the AMPTP, more disturbing details have emerged, like the fact that the AMPTP’s plans included “scanning” the likenesses of background actors in order to use their digital counterparts in perpetuity without paying for more than one day of work. These ideas are a seriously slippery slope, and as both writers and actors have been pointing out, AI can’t possibly do a good job of creating art loved by millions of people across the world.

The new Emmys date is currently tentative, especially if the strikes continue through the end of 2023.

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. To learn more about why writers and actors are currently on strike, click here for an up-to-date explainer from our Looper team.