Where to Watch the SAG Awards and What to Watch For

The SAG Awards will be our first major televised awards show, followed by the Critics Choice Awards on March 13th.

Here are the deets:

25^th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® will be nationallysimulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, celebrating the outstanding motion picture and television performances from the previous calendar year. The ceremony, hosted by Megan Mullally, will be presented by SAG-AFTRA with Screen Actors Guild Awards, LLC and produced by Avalon Harbor Entertainment, Inc.

Watch the 25^th SAG Awards on all media platforms
In addition to linear broadcast, TNT and TBS subscribers can watch the SAG Awards live using the networks’ websites, mobile apps, connected device apps (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire). The telecast will be available internationally, including to U.S. military installations through the American Forces Network.

Tune-in to the official live pre-show
In advance of the televised ceremony, SAG Awards Ambassador Harry Shum Jr. (Crazy Rich Asians) and Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale) – both of whom are Actor® nominees this year – will announce the honorees for Outstanding Action Performances by Film and Television Stunt Ensembles during the official pre-show PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly & TNT Red Carpet Live: 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards, presented by Reynolds Wrap® in celebration of the SAG Awards Silver Anniversary, which will livestream beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET / 2:30 p.m. PT on:

In terms of what to watch for, there are a few things we would like to know from our largest voting group. First up, it was a bit odd that The Power of the Dog did not win the USC Scripter last night. The last Best Picture winner nominated there to not win was the Return of the King in 2003, right around the time the Oscars changed their date. So it could be something to do with that. Otherwise, we would have expected the frontrunner to win there.

On the other hand, in the era of the preferential ballot the Best Director and Screenplay prizes don’t usually go together when it’s the same person — Birdman and Parasite being the exceptions, though they awarded co-writers. Giving three Oscars to one person is usually not done but it could still happen, depending on the popularity of the film heading in. However, Power winning Director and not Screenplay could mean it wins Best Picture: the precedent for that would be The Artist and The Shape of Water. The Scripter seems to be giving us mixed messages there. They are a much smaller voting body than the Academy but it’s something to put a pin in for now and think about later.

The other test of Power’s strength will be seen tonight at the SAGs, where it up for three awards. It is expected to win one of these — and that’s Kodi Smit-McPhee for Supporting Actor — but it’s possible it could win Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch (but King Richard also has a Ensemble nomination) or Best Supporting Actress for Kirsten Dunst (Ariana DeBose is considered the frontrunner heading in). Power is not up for Ensemble so it can’t win there.

A Best Picture frontrunner not winning any acting awards, though, doesn’t mean it won’t win. The Shape of Water was in a similar place with multiple acting noms, no ensemble nom, but still winning Best Picture.

Ensemble is:

Belfast
King Richard
Don’t Look Up
CODA
House of Gucci

The only one of these, strangely enough, that has a DGA and Best Director nomination at the Oscars is Belfast. That shows you what a weird year this has been. Usually there is more than one that crosses over. That would tell you, or should tell you, that it’s the strongest of these at least in terms of a consensus vote for Best Picture.

Other crossovers in the past have been:

2020
Minari — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Supporting Actress winner)

2019
Parasite — SAG Ensemble win/DGA nominee/Best Director winner (Picture/Director/Screenplay winner)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Best Supporting Actor winner)
The Irishman — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee

2018
BlackKklansman — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)

2017
Get Out — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)
Lady Bird — SAG Ensemble/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee

2016
Manchester by the Sea — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)
Moonlight — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Supporting Actor/Picture/Screenplay winner)

2015
Spotlight — SAG Ensemble winner/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Picture/Screenplay winner)
The Big Short — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)

2014
Birdman — SAG Ensemble winner/DGA winner/Best Director winner (Picture/Director/Screenplay/Cinematography winner)
Boyhood — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Supporting Actress winner)
Grand Budapest Hotel — SAG Ensemble nominee /DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Crafts winner)
The Imitation Game — SAG Ensemble nominee /DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)

2013
12 Years a Slave — SAG Ensemble winner/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Picture/Screenplay/Supporting Actress winner)

2012
Lincoln — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Best Actor winner)

2011
*The Artist — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA winner/Best Director winner (Picture/Director/Actor/crafts winner)
Midnight in Paris — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)
The Descendants — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee /Best Director nominee (Screenplay winner)

2010
The King’s Speech — SAG Ensemble winner/DGA winner/Best Director winner (Picture/Director/Screenplay/Actor winner)
The Social Network — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay/rafts winner)
The Fighter — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Supporting Actor/Actress winner)
Black Swan — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Actress winner)

2009
*The Hurt Locker — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA winner /Best Director winner (Picture/Director/Screenplay/crafts winner)
Inglorious Basterds — SAG Ensemble winner/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Supporting Actor/Screenplay winner)
Precious — SAG Ensemble nominee/DGA nominee/Best Director nominee (Screenplay/Supporting Actress winner)

The * means they won Best Picture but nothing at the SAG awards. Otherwise, having these crossover nominations appears to result in at least one Oscar win with the exceptions of The Irishman and Lady Bird.

That Belfast is the only film with all of the crossover nominations here, along with the audience win at TIFF, seems to indicate Belfast should win at least one Oscar.

However, tonight’s vote for Ensemble/Cast will have been voted on by the largest consensus in the awards race: roughly 150,000 SAG/AFTRA members. Having rewatched CODA last night I’m thinking it probably has a really good shot of winning tonight, even though I have predicted Belfast. Don’t Look Up has the most stars in it and having them on stage might be fun, but honestly, I could see any of the five winning.

But whatever wins Ensemble probably won’t decide Best Picture since in every one of those cases where SAG Ensemble + ACE win amounted to Best Picture surprise (like Parasite and Crash), there was also a DGA and Best Director nomination.