SAG Awards Rebranded As The Actor Awards After 30-Year Run

After 30 years, the Screen Actors Guild Awards is being renamed. The award show debuted on NBC in 1995, with George Burns receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, and actors like Tom Hanks, Jodie Foster, Dianne Wiest and Helen Hunt walking away as winners.

The SAG Awards is presented by the Screen Actors Guild, which merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) in 2012. SAG-AFTRA elected Sean Astin as president in September.

Thirteen years after the merging of SAG and AFTRA, the labor union has decided to downplay SAG in the name of its awards show by renaming the telecast The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA (or The Actor Awards, for short), according to Deadline.

The reason for this change is so that the name not only reflects the current standing of the organization, but it also aligns with the statuette itself, which is called The Actor.

In a statement, The Actor Awards showrunner Jon Brockett said that this major change is merely a reflection of the show’s “evolution” while keeping the focus “entirely about actors.”

Since the beginning, our statue has been called ‘The Actor’ and we’re a show that’s entirely about actors, so this new name is a perfect next step in the show’s evolution. The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA gives viewers in 190-plus countries an immediate understanding of who we are and what we’re about.

Actress JoBeth Williams, who served as the SAG Foundation president and chair of the SAG Awards Committee, added that the organization wanted to make it “crystal clear to audiences” that The Actor Awards is an “actor-focused” show, not just due to the winners themselves but also the fact that the voting members are also actors.

As an actor and a longtime SAG-AFTRA member and chair of the Awards Committee, I’ve always loved that our show is actor focused—actors voting for actors—because we understand innately the work that goes into a performance. The Actor Awards makes that crystal clear to audiences everywhere: when they tune in, they know they’re going to see their favorite actors celebrated by those who truly know the craft.

Williams, as part of the Awards Committee, has been working with SAG-AFTRA from start to finish. They approved the new name and then ensured a smooth rollout.

Speaking of which, this announcement is coming about a month before nomination voting begins on December 15. Due to this short time frame, SAG-AFTRA has decided that studio campaigns can still use the SAG Awards name when promoting its shows and stars–but only for the current awards season.

Beginning with next year’s voting period, studios need to start using the new moniker.

After nomination voting closes on January 4, 2026, Actor Award nominations will be announced the morning of January 7. Members will vote from January 14 to February 27. Then the awards show itself will stream live on Netflix at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST on March 1, 2026.

The popular streamer’s partnership with the SAG Awards/Actor Awards started in 2023 when Netflix live-streamed the show on YouTube. The streaming service itself started hosting the telecast in 2024. Before that, the SAG Awards had aired on various networks, including NBC, TNT and TBS.

Over the past 30 years, the awards show has only had three hosts, starting with Nobody Wants This cast member Kristen Bell in 2018; she returned in 2025.

Will & Grace‘s Megan Mullally hosted in 2019, and movie star Idris Elba opened the show in 2024.

A host for the 2026 Actor Awards has not been announced yet, but if it does have a host, they will likely be announced sometime over the next couple of months.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards being renamed The Actor Awards doesn’t change anything else about the show itself. While it might take some getting used to, the rebranding will eventually be ingrained into the lexicon of the entertainment industry as the precursor to the Oscars charts a new path forward.