I grew up observing the high holy days of Awards Season, and when you’re in the thick of it, the SAG Awards are always super refreshing with their zippy two-hour runtime (that actually sticks to two hours). The SAGs manage this seemingly impossible feat, of course, by being an award show put on by the Screen Actors Guild — the union that represents, you guessed it, screen actors — for all acting categories, with an award called “The Actor.” It’s that simple. Screen actors, award show. I’ve never found any of this particularly confusing, but apparently SAG itself thinks it is, as they’ve just announced a new name for their annual shindig: The Actor Awards. Though if we’re being technical, the full new name is The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA. But their point is that everything is finally streamlined now that the name of the show matches the name of the statuette, get it!! (I don’t get it.)

The Screen Actors Guild Awards is getting a rebrand.

Starting next year, the annual awards show which celebrates acting across film and television — and is voted on by actors within the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) — will be named after the actual award, The Actor, according to the organization.

“Our iconic statuette has always been called The Actor®, and simply evolving the show’s name to align with the award itself made obvious sense,” the Actor Awards website stated, adding that the organization “wanted to provide clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about for our domestic and global audiences — we honor actors in film and television.”

The website also said that this evolution has been “a long time coming” and that since “the show’s global audience expanded through Netflix, the timing felt right to make the alignment official and step confidently into the show’s next era.”

According to its site, SAG-AFTRA “represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals.”

The Screen Actors Guild was founded in 1933 and the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) was formed four years later. In 1952, the Television Authority merged with AFRA and became AFTRA.

In 2012, the two entities combined to form SAG-AFTRA.

The award show, now officially titled The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA, streams on Netflix and will next be seen live on March 1, 2026.

Nominations will be announced on January 7.

[From CNN]

No joke, are the HBO/Max/HBO Max folks blackmailing SAG-AFTRA? Like, “Make a name change that’s equal or more inane than one of our kabillion attempts or else we’ll never work with union actors again, muahaha!” Because any brand name change that requires a full FAQ page on their website, I’d not call that an award-worthy marketing move. And again, were people really befuddled over the fact that the show was called “The SAG Awards” but presenters said “And the Actor goes to…” ? Also, framing this as the right time to make the name change because something something they’re on Netflix now… The show has been streaming live on Netflix since 2023. What are we doing here?! Obviously none of this will stop me from watching The SAG Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA To Give Out Actor Awards&tm;, so I guess all my incredulity is nothing but sound and fury signifying nothing. And I can’t complain entirely, because on that FAQ page SAG-AFTRA-the union treated us by actually listing out this gem of a question: “How does this [the name change] impact the legacy and prestige of the SAG Awards?” LOL!! They did that for realsies! And their answer (to the question no one else was asking) was 27 words all to say that nothing is changing. Exactly.

photos credit: Armen Keleshian/Shutterstock for Netflix, Netflix Press, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon