The highly anticipated Emmy Awards ceremony is postponed due to the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA. The entertainment industry has been rocked by the labor dispute, as writers and actors demand fair compensation, and for the first time since the Emmys launched in 1949, there will be no Primetime show this year.
© GettyImagesOn Thursday, the Television Academy and FOX announced that the 75th Emmy Awards will air on Monday, January 15, 2024, a federal holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Television Academy had been pushing for a November airdate, while FOX pushed for a January airdate, per Billboard.
The decision to postpone the ceremony sheds light on the significant impact writers and actors have, highlighting the importance of addressing their concerns and making things right. Union workers and supporters have been on the picket lines for over three months, eagerly awaiting a resolution to the strike.
© GettyImagesIt will be a busy awards season with the Golden Globes set for January 7, the Grammys (Feb. 4), the BAFTA Awards, and the People’s Choice Awards (Feb. 18). The move means there will be two Emmys in 2024.
The Writer Guild began their strike on May 2, and the Emmy nominations were announced on July 12, two days before SAG-AFTRA joined them. Some standout shows with the most nominations are HBO’s Succession, The Last of Us, and The White Lotus.
The final round of voting for the 75th Primetime Emmys will take place between August 17 and August 28. The results will be a secret until they are unveiled in 2024.
History of the Emmys
The concept of the Emmy Awards was first proposed by the Television Academy in the late 1940s. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) was established in 1946 to recognize and celebrate excellence in the emerging medium of television. The word “Emmy” is derived from “immy,” an early slang term for a television image orthicon tube, an essential component of early television production.
The first Emmy Awards ceremony was on January 25, 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club. The small, private event only presented a few categories. As television programming expanded and diversified, so did the Emmy Awards, and it added a range of categories, such as drama, comedy, variety shows, news, and documentaries.
