Will Hollywood Strikes Delay This Year’s Emmys, Just as Awards Shows are Expanding Their Streaming Presence?

If 2023 were a normal year, Emmy voting would be in full swing. Writers and producers would be putting the full-court press on voters in preparation for the announcement of nominations, which is due to take place on July 12. But 2023 isn’t a normal year, and what Emmy campaigning has taken place has assumed a much more muted form.

Those deviations from the norm are due, of course, to the Writers Guild of America strike that has shut down production on all but a handful of shows. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) will see its contract with studios expire on June 30, demarking the next possible flashpoint of contention between producers and talent.

If the actors decide to go on strike as well, the Emmys broadcast— which is currently set to take place on Sept. 18 on Fox — could be in jeopardy. Voting is continuing as scheduled, but with less robust campaigning, the landscape will look very different this year. A prolonged strike could mean an actor boycott of the Emmys, a move that would almost certainly crater ratings for the telecast to the point that it will either be postponed or canceled.

If the Emmys were delayed, it could be bad news for streaming services like Peacock and Netflix. The Emmys are rotating between the broadcast networks currently, and its presence on Fox this year indicates it wasn’t all that likely to be streamed, since Fox’s only subscription streaming service Fox Nation leans more heavily into lifestyle shows and conservative political commentary.

But the next big awards show after the Emmys is the Golden Globes in January, and the SAG Awards follow closely in February. Peacock livestreamed the former awards show in 2022 and saw 793,000 users turn the stream on at some point. Peacock will also stream the 2024 People’s Choice Awards in 2024 for the first time, but delays in the award season calendar could affect those plans too.

Next year will be the first that Netflix will stream the SAG Awards. The service needs all the help it can get in rehabilitating its reputation as a live streaming platform currently, having badly misfired on its last attempt to broadcast a program live.

The future of awards shows could be on streaming, but this year is more about ensuring there will be awards shows at all rather than determining where people will watch them in the future. There’s still time to avoid a strike from SAG-AFTRA, though that time is running out fast. If actors do join the writers on the picket lines, it could mean delays for the Emmys telecast and other awards shows that can easily snowball.

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