Column: With 2025 SAG Awards, Netflix proved it isn't solving awards season ratings crisis

It’s official, Netflix volition not beryllium solving the awards-show ratings situation by turning the Screen Actors Guild Awards into must-watch television.

This year’s SAG Awards opened powerfully enough, with a genuinely comic spot successful which “Hacks’” Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) prepared to big the awards lone to observe that the crushed SAG-AFTRA had been trying truthful assiduously to interaction her was not to petition her services but to archer her she hadn’t paid her dues.

This was followed by existent big Kristen Bell singing the delightful ditty “Do You Want to Be An Actor?” (to the tune of “Frozen’s” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”) portion a montage of aboriginal appearances by nominees and others underlined the sometimes ignominious aspects to the acting life.

As the evening’s archetypal winner, for his supporting relation successful “A Real Pain,” Kieran Culkin kept things moving, commenting connected the value of the grant — ”I don’t deliberation anyone could clasp this for 45 seconds and that’s your allotted time, Adrien Brody” and what that value mightiness signify. “It is comic that the heaviest of each awards is fixed by actors — ’us what we do, it means truthful much,’” helium said, mugging ponderous emotion. “You tin spot the gathering of actors — ‘it needs much weight.’”

Promising, precise promising, but it was each downhill from there.

Which is to say, the amusement past became precisely what it is — a small much than 2 hours of celebrated radical giving and receiving awards.

I’m not saying determination weren’t entertaining moments. Bits honoring shriek queens, “Law and Order: Guest Stars” and actors who got their commencement successful soaps were large fun. In winning for “Baby Reindeer,” Jessica Gunning told chap nominees Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates and Cate Blanchett that they had been connected her imagination committee erstwhile she became an actor, which was precise sweet.

Martin Short won champion histrion successful a drama bid (over favourite Jeremy Allen White!) for “Only Murders successful the Building,” which would person nary uncertainty yielded a terrifically comic code but helium was not successful attendance, (reportedly due to the fact that helium caught COVID astatine the Saturday Night Live 50th day prime-time special.) Neither was Steve Martin, which near Selena Gomez arsenic the 1 to convey her co-stars erstwhile the amusement won (over the Emmys-sweeping “The Bear!”) for champion ensemble successful a drama series.

Jane Fonda, the SAG Life Achievement Award recipient, whose code nudged astatine the governmental moment.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Jane Fonda, this year’s Life Achievement Award recipient, did her champion to stiffen everyone’s spines for the perilous clip that “is coming our way” contempt respective audio difficulties and, perhaps, a memo informing her not to accidental the words “Donald Trump.” Los Angeles firefighters and constabulary officers were honored, and contributions to SAG-AFTRA’s fire-relief money movingly solicited.

At the precise end, “Conclave” won champion ensemble for a question picture, which made maine precise happy.

But it was, implicit all, reasonably boring and much than occasionally lame (Keri Russell and Kerry Washington presented unneurotic because, apparently, idiosyncratic thought that having them accidental each other’s names respective times would beryllium hilarious).

No worse than astir awards shows, but nary amended either.

Netflix’s evident content that, contempt dwindling ratings for the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys, streaming could instrumentality the SAG Awards and marque them, well, a prima has proved to beryllium misguided.

Everyone deserves to dream, I suppose, but the SAG Awards don’t truly request Netflix to marque them shine. They’ve ever held a peculiar spot successful awards play arsenic the ceremonial with the astir stars per quadrate inch (none of those pesky documentary-short makers) and a bellwether for the acting, and possibly champion picture, winners astatine the upcoming Oscars.

As is inevitably noted successful speeches by presenters and winners, the ceremonial is profoundly idiosyncratic — a accidental for actors to observe with, and judge accolades from, their peers, radical who recognize the difficulties and wonders of being an actor. The ceremony, which is lone 30 years old, whitethorn beryllium glittering and glamorous, but arsenic a live-television lawsuit it was ne'er considered connected par with the Oscars, the Emmys oregon adjacent the Golden Globes.

Netflix, however, thought differently. Last year, aft a 4th of a period connected TNT and TBS, the SAG Awards moved to the streamer, which seemed to judge that, successful the close hands, the signifier could someway outshine the function. All it needed was a small zhuzhing up. As successful awards delivered during the reddish (in this lawsuit silver) carpet pre-show, backstage interviews with winners and nominees and, of course, nary commercials.

But adjacent with these cheeky tweaks, and a splendid code by Life Achievement Award diva, er, winner, Barbra Streisand, viewership did not ascent from the 1.8 cardinal who had tuned successful the erstwhile twelvemonth to TNT/TBS.

This year, the backstage interviews were out, replaced by commercials (which honestly are a indispensable unit successful immoderate awards show, if lone to supply snack and bath breaks). The awards for stunt enactment were inactive fixed during the pre-show (are those receiving them not celebrated enough? Discuss). But if you didn’t cognize you were watching Netflix (and during the pre-show, each those large reddish Ns made it intolerable to overlook), you would person been forgiven for reasoning you were watching TNT/TBS.

If Netflix was hoping to beryllium that streaming is the solution to the dwindling involvement successful awards show, it did not marque its lawsuit Sunday night.

The SAG Awards stay arsenic peculiar arsenic they ever were, to those successful the room, and those calculating the Oscar likelihood (see my workfellow Glenn Whipp for much details). They don’t request Netflix to marque them bigger than that.

Which is good. Because it didn’t.