The Emmys Aren't Happening in September Because the Industry Won't Pay Its Creatives

By Kayleigh Donaldson | TV | July 28, 2023 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | TV | July 28, 2023 |

Vendors for the 75th Primetime Emmys have been told that the ceremony will not air as scheduled on September 18 as the entertainment industry continues to stonewall its striking writers and actors. According to Variety, various figures involved with the TV Academy and Fox, the network that airs the ceremony, are now preparing to push the date back.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise given the continuing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and the industry’s callous refusal to pay them what they’re owed. Neither the actors nor writers can campaign right now. This would make it the first time the Emmys have been postponed since 2001, due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Moving the date would also put them in competition with the wider film awards season, which starts to get very crowded around January with various Oscars precursors.

Last week, the TV Academy said, in a statement, ‘Like the rest of the industry, we hope there will be an equitable and timely resolution for all parties in the current guild negotiations. We continue to monitor the situation closely with our partners at Fox and will advise if and when there is an update available.’

It’s notable how the entertainment world has decided to just set fire to everything rather than pay the, in context, tiny amount of money they owe the people who do all the hard work. We’re seeing major films have their release dates pushed back. Others are being pulled from their initial festival debuts, as has happened with Challengers, which was set to make its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The goal seems to be to make general audiences so pissed off that they’ll revolt against the unions because they just want their mindless entertainment on demand. While it’s worth remembering that most viewers aren’t as clued in on the issues as us perennially online fans, they’re also not stupid. Plenty of fandoms have been burned by the tedious grind of the streaming business model and aren’t exactly eager to cozy up to the likes of Warner Bros. or Netflix. The 2007/8 writers’ strike was an entire era or two of entertainment ago. Audiences won’t react the same way. We can just watch or do something else.

It’s also just interesting to see the industry repeatedly shoot itself in the foot over this. What, all that Barbenheimer money and audience goodwill aren’t enough to encourage you to actually pay the people who made it happen? Your bold strategy is to strip away the next few months of releases and let the fans swarm to your side in support? Good luck with that one.

It’s not just awards season either. It’s scab season! The daytime soap opera General Hospital is now hiring scabs, which Variety euphemistically refers to as ‘temporary writers’ because we know which side of the fight they’re on. Note to the world: don’t scab. It’s not worth it, not for you or your colleagues or your industry. Do you think General Hospital is going to keep you around once the strike is over? Do you think the WGA will forgive and forget? Do you think anyone else in your field will ever look you in the eye without thinking about what a giant sad scab you are?

Don’t cross a picket line. Pay your creatives. And get over yourselves, Hollywood.