The SAG Awards are "extremely disappointed" about having to share its big night with the Grammys

The Screen Actors Guild Awards don’t receive quite as much fanfare from the general public as the Academy Awards, but it’s still a major night for the film industry, often setting a tonal precedent for the Oscars. On March 14, they plan on rolling out the proverbial red carpet and offering up trophies for some of the most resonant performances from the past god-awful year. But they won’t be the only ones throwing a pandemic-appropriate bash that night: With the Recording Academy recently rescheduling the Grammys for the same night, we now have a classic “the popular kids are throwing a party on the same night as MY party” trope on our hands, and SAG is none too pleased with this turn in the plot.

Deadline reports that SAG-AFTRA—which announced the plan to move its event from from January to March way back in July—is deeply disappointed in the Recording Academy’s decision to share the date, which they expressed in a statement to Deadline: “We are extremely disappointed to hear of the conflicting date, March 14th, announced today for this year’s Grammy Awards telecast. We announced the same date for the SAG Awards last July with the intent to give the greatest possible scheduling consideration for other awards shows. We expect the same consideration from sister organizations throughout the industry.”

If you’re thinking that SAG-AFTRA is banking a little too heavily on the kindness of veritable strangers, consider that its optimism likely stems from an almost identical situation that occurred last year. The difference is, when the Guild learned that the Grammys had announced its telecast for the same night—January 26, 2020—SAG advanced its event by one week out of courtesy. Is it too much to ask for a little reciprocal courtesy? Probably not, but this is the same Recording Academy that suggested Justin Bieber deserves positive reinforcement for “Yummy” and paid The Weeknd nothing but dust. They know nothing of decency.

The Grammys haven’t responded to SAG-AFTRA and we don’t imagine they will, opting to just continue with this Plan C postponement of sorts. But if the SAG Awards are looking for ideas here, there are plenty of examples of the Party Scheduling Gambit trope in TV and film to pull from. Hopefully they’ll soon figure out how to throw a socially distanced rager that’ll compete.