We are two weeks and two shows away from tying a bow on Awards Season 2026, hang in there with me! This Sunday, March 1 we have the Actor Awards, the artist formerly known as the SAGs. Then there’s nothing March 8 (it’s the start of Daylight Saving when we lose an hour, so I’m guessing no one wanted to risk a scheduling snafu; it certainly couldn’t have been out of deference to International Women’s Day). And finally we get to the Oscars on the 15th. Kristen Bell was tapped as the first-ever host of the SAGs in 2018, a role she reprised seven years later in 2025. Bell is back again this year (for third time’s the charm or three strikes you’re out, take your pick), and the union behind the awards seems to have tasked Kristen with really driving home the name change. Please enjoy Kristen sharing with the press how she’s constantly using the wrong name, but the rebrand is really great because finally the award voted on by actors is called the actor award!
“Renaming it is a big thing to apply to the old processor,” says Bell. “There’s been a lot of slip-ups. But we politely correct each other when I say the SAG Awards. Nope, it’s now called the Actor Awards.”
Bell, a proud SAG-AFTRA member for more than two decades, says she had nothing to do with the name change. “That’s not my department, and above my pay grade,” she says.
But she’s accepting because the rebranding signifies what makes this show different from others in a crowded awards season. The Golden Globes are voted on by a group of foreign journalists who now weigh in on podcasts, TV and film. Critics Choice are voted on by critics. The Actor Awards rely on actors to vote on the film and TV performances of their peers.
“That’s what this show is about, that’s what makes it unique,” Bell says. “Some branding genius was like, ‘Why not call it the Actor Awards?’ And they called me, told me it’s called the Actor Awards, and I said, ‘Let’s roll!’”
It has led to solid comedic fodder, with a show promotion featuring Bell calling every SAG-AFTRA member to let them know about the name change. Bell will also “lean into the new name” during the show opening for laughs.
Bell has been the only host of the SAG Awards/Actor Awards, starting as first-ever host in 2018. While the actors frequently make political statements on the red carpet or during acceptance speeches, Bell, as host, has avoided contentious issues during the monologue. That will continue.
“It’s a political-free zone,” Bell says. “There’s something for everyone. There will be no division on the show.”
Bell will not burn her fellow stars in the audience during the show.
“If I roast anyone, it’s going to be myself,” Bell says. “I like the idea of an old vaudeville act where you’re just trying to goof, maintain someone’s attention and have them walk away refreshed.”
“It’s a political-free zone. … There will be no division on the show.” What if I find that very statement divisive? I also consider it a joke, given the show is populated by actors and they like to express themselves, often passionately! (See: Jane Fonda’s acceptance speech last year for her lifetime achievement award.) Not to mention a seismic earthquake just rattled the industry with Netflix letting Paramount go ahead and buy Warner Bros., and you know people in that room are gonna have opinions on that. Furthermore, I’m a nerd and can’t help myself from pointing out that a very literal division is inherent in any award show, in the sense that one fifth of the nominees will be singled out as winners. And by the way, it also happens to plainly not be true that Kristen as host has never gone political. During her first stint in 2018 she had a whole riff in her opening monologue about how being the “First Host” was like being the “First Lady” and announced her platform would be cyberbullying, a clear dig at Melania Trump. Even if it was a producer urging Kristen to say “No politics here!” my question is: why? Why are they so desperate to get an audience they don’t have instead of embracing the one they do? After the disgrace that was the BAFTAs last week, I think the SAGs Actor Awards need to be more concerned with being racism-free as opposed to politics-free.
The Actor Awards stream live on Netflix at 8pm ET, here’s a full list of the nominees.
Photos credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock for SA via Netflix press, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon, Getty Images for Netflix
What an aggressively stupid thing to say at any point, but in the middle of this timeline, she just made herself out to be a huge bootlicking coward. “We will not upset the powers that be, regardless of how terrible things are right now. We’re just going to have fun!” Read the room, trick!
Welp Ellison and paramount are now going to own CNN, hBO and so much of the arts. They are going to own SO MUCH. Ellison has already stated that he is going to black list actors that speak out. So yeah, get ready for actors to start being more quiet, casts to be even whiter and lots of diverse projects to not even see the light of day.
At a time when so many people are suffering profoundly because of politics, this was an ugly and selfish thing to say. She doesn’t have to worry about being deported, or putting food on the table.
Saying nothing was an option. This was just so heartless, it makes me like her less.
Another show to honor actors. Great.
Well-said, Kismet. Art is inherently political and a lot of actors are empaths as the medium of acting tends to require the ability to tap into and harness strong emotions. I’m just so effin sick of Americans being allergic to politics when we are literally living through an authoritarian nightmare. Ignore that at your own peril, Kristen.
Also, there’s a whole-ass list of actors, directors, producers etc who fled Nazi Germany to go on to make a name for themselves in Hollywood: William Wyler, Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang etc. For them, Hollywood represented an opportunity to have both a successful career and to feel safe. People like Bell dishonor their memories by attempting to make Hollywood into a sanitized, non-woke version of itself for fear of offending the 30% of this country that don’t care what actors have to say in the first place. Her not addressing what’s happening in our country right now feels like an attempt to bury her head in the sand. Wake TF up, girl.
“The Actor” removes its relationship to the acting unions, that is political!
Kirsten Bell, she of the weird parental choices and that uber white dining pic doesnt want to get political?
Is that because she’s secretly MAGA?
Seriously now is not the time for a political free zone
Good luck telling Sean Penn not to be political
Everything is political.