Don’t expect a host at the 2020 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards.
Held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m. EST (and airing on TNT and TBS), the 26th annual SAG Awards will honor the best performances of the year in TV and film. But the show will go on this year without an emcee, a return to the show’s host-free origins.
Producers for the show told Variety the decision not to include a host is because they’re hoping to increase ratings like the Oscars did when it went hostless and speed the show along. Instead, they’re turning to presenters to provide entertainment for the night along with pre-taped comedic bits between categories.
The opening, producers said, will feature some of the nominees telling stories while sitting in the audience. Robert De Niro, who is set to receive the “Life Achievement Award,” also will be featured in a pre-taped segment.
“We’re going to look at what would have happened if a few of his movies didn’t have him but had somebody else in that role,” one of the producers told Variety. “So we’ll have a segment that’s ‘Movies Without Robert De Niro.’ … That’s something new we’re trying to inject a little levity into the evening.”
For most of its history, the SAG Awards did not have a host until Kristen Bell emceed the 2018 ceremony followed by Megan Mullally in 2019. While Bell, 39, kept her monologue pretty tame focusing on the importance of storytelling in the entertainment industry, 61-year-old Mullally went full throttle and skewered Hollywood for racism, sexism and ageism.
“To SAG nominee, the beautiful Emma Stone, who just turned 30 our condolences,” Mullally said during the 2019 ceremony to the actress, who was nominated for her role in “Maniac.” “You had a great run, like a really great run extra good. But you know we’re looking forward to your reverse mortgage loan commercials. Chin up.”
Unlike the Oscars and other award ceremonies, the SAG Awards honor only actors and actresses who appear in front of the camera in either television shows or movies. For 2020, movie nominees include Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood”), Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”), Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”) and Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role.
Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”), Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”), Lupita Nyong’o (“Us”), Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”) and Renée Zellweger (“Judy”) were nominated for the best actress in a film category.
Earlier this month, actresses Joey King, 20, and Logan Browning, 30, were named ambassadors for the show, charged with hosting pre-show events and presence on social media. King is nominated for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or limited series for her role in Hulu’s “The Act.”
Leonardo DiCaprio will present De Niro with his achievement award. Previous honorees include Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds, Rita Moreno and Betty White, who just turned 98.
“I have been a member of this union for over 50 years,” De Niro, 76, said in a press release. “It’s an honor to receive this award from SAG-AFTRA.”