BY – Oluwafunmilayo Ogedengbe
Organisers of the Emmys have announced the postponement of the award ceremony to January 15, 2024, as Hollywood writers and actors are still on strike over labour disputes with major studios.
Last month, it was announced that the the 75th annual event would no longer take place on Monday, Sept. 18, as was originally planned and would be rescheduled to an undetermined future date.
The nominations for the highest honours in television were announced in July, just before the SAG-AFTRA strike began.
Two days before the strike began, the 2023 Emmy nominations were announced by Television Academy Chair Frank Scherma and Yvette Nicole Brown. Shows like HBO drama Succession, Abbott Elementary, and Ted Lasso received an impressive amount of nominations.
According to the press release, the Emmys will not be live, instead will be filmed over two consecutive nights — Saturday, Jan. 6, and Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 — before the Jan. 15 airdate.
“We are pleased to announce that the 75th Emmy Awards will now air on Monday, January 15, 2024,” said a Fox spokesman.
Held at the Peacock Theater at LA Live in Los Angeles, California, TV’s biggest night, often referred to as television’s Oscars, will honor the talented performers, writers, directors and craftspeople whose work has entertained, inspired and connected viewers across the globe throughout the past year.
Meanwhile, there seems to be no resolution in sight as the Hollywood writers’ strike marked 100 days on Wednesday with contract talks stalled and people on the picket lines protesting what they describe as a disregard for their demands.
Leaders of the striking actors’ union, had criticized the Hollywood studios for an alleged proposal that would allow them to use AI-generated replicas of background actors in perpetuity in return for a single day’s pay, outlining the growing concerns about the use of artificial intelligence tools by studios to replace human performers and creatives.
Similar concerns about the use of AI had been raised by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) when it began its strike in May. The guild’s proposal called for the regulation of AI use, including a ban on AI writing or rewriting “literary material,” use of AI to generate source material for writers and preventing the training of AI tools on material written by the guild’s writers.
The AMPTP rejected this proposal and instead offered to hold annual meetings “to discuss advancements in technology.”
The historic double strike has brought the US TV and movie industry to a halt. The current WGA strike is one of the longest that Hollywood has ever seen. It has lasted longer than the 1981 WGA strike, which took 96 days before a deal was reached over writer residuals from sales in videocassettes and pay TV, according to Vanity Fair.
TV shows that have already been affected by the writers’ strike include “Andor,” “Stranger Things,” “The Last of Us,” “Yellowjackets,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Blade Runner 2099” and “The Mandalorian,” as well late-night shows such as “Saturday Night Live” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Film and TV projects that have already completed their shooting and are now in postproduction are not directly affected, but other productions have already postponed their release dates, including the sequel to “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and Disney’s “Blade” remake, whose scripts were not completed before the writers’ strike.
The Marvel film “Captain America: Brave New World” reportedly wrapped its shoot just before the actors’ strike started — though reshoots are often part of the production process in such films, which is why the release date has already been pushed back.
Other productions of highly anticipated movies forced to pause due to the strike include “Beetlejuice 2” from Tim Burton, Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool 3,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator 2,” the martial arts sequel “Mortal Kombat 2,” the Tom Cruise action movie “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two” and “Paddington in Peru,” the third film in the beloved Paddington Bear franchise.
Many more projects have been affected by the walkout, including international film and television productions with US stars.
As part of the rules of the strike, actors are also barred from promoting their work on podcasts or at premieres.