00:00:00
well one of the byproducts of the
00:00:01
Hollywood actors and writer strikes have
00:00:03
been the postponing of award shows
00:00:05
pleasure to be joined right now by Adam
00:00:07
sharp who's president and CEO of the
00:00:09
National Academy of Television Arts and
00:00:11
Sciences which administers the Daytime
00:00:13
Emmy Awards uh which were postponed uh
00:00:16
in part due to the strikes Adam great to
00:00:18
have you with us thanks very much for
00:00:19
your time today of course thank you for
00:00:21
having me so take us through what this
00:00:23
process has been like the last couple of
00:00:25
months because I would imagine you you
00:00:27
you had a plan for a while and then
00:00:30
obviously you had to think about putting
00:00:31
it off and then now we get the strike
00:00:34
and it's it's really kind of been
00:00:35
probably quite the mess the last couple
00:00:37
of months
00:00:39
well it it's funny after a few years of
00:00:43
pandemic we entered this year saying
00:00:45
great we could finally get back to
00:00:48
normal
00:00:49
and I think we spoke a little too soon
00:00:52
um I I think that it it's definitely
00:00:55
been a a fresh challenge I think the
00:01:00
pandemic certainly gave us a bit of the
00:01:03
muscle memory for flexibility and for
00:01:07
having a lot of plan B's C's all the way
00:01:10
down to plan Z's and thinking about
00:01:14
different what-ifs and uh
00:01:19
a lot of our meetings have said you know
00:01:21
this this reminds us a lot of March of
00:01:24
2020
00:01:26
um where we weren't sure quite yet that
00:01:29
things were completely off it was okay
00:01:31
we'll move it a month we'll move it a
00:01:33
couple of weeks we'll start holding a
00:01:35
few future dates for when this All
00:01:37
Passes
00:01:39
um 2021 was actually probably the
00:01:42
easiest of the pandemic years because we
00:01:46
went into the year knowing we weren't
00:01:47
doing any shows it was just a simple
00:01:50
binary yeah no in-person events uh but
00:01:54
2020 was still sliding things around
00:01:57
playing it by ear 2022 was the same
00:02:01
thing in reverse and so we had a bit of
00:02:04
practice uh obviously different
00:02:07
circumstances but a lot of the Tactical
00:02:10
reactions to that wound up being the
00:02:12
same and so for the daytime Emmys we
00:02:15
were keeping a close eye on each of the
00:02:17
guilds certainly this spring we had
00:02:20
three guilds in place sag-aftra wga and
00:02:23
the Director's Guild the directors did
00:02:26
reach a deal with the ampdp and so that
00:02:29
came off the table but the other two are
00:02:31
out on strike and so that keeps this uh
00:02:34
up in limbo for the time being so in
00:02:36
terms of the Daytime Emmy Awards is one
00:02:39
of the strikes more important to going
00:02:43
ahead with the Daytime Emmy Awards and
00:02:44
the other or would you like to see them
00:02:46
both kind of solved and off the books
00:02:49
and then move forward
00:02:51
we would like to see both of them sold
00:02:53
our our intent is that we will not move
00:02:55
forward with the daytime Emmys as long
00:02:57
as either Guild is out on strike as a
00:03:01
technical matter a legal matter
00:03:04
um the wga strike is the more limiting
00:03:07
and part of that is because the daytime
00:03:11
Emmys
00:03:13
um are a little bit different than
00:03:15
perhaps some other award shows in that
00:03:18
number one all award shows operate under
00:03:22
a different contract than the SAG after
00:03:25
contract that is currently being
00:03:28
struck so technically award shows
00:03:30
themselves are not struck you can still
00:03:33
produce an award show
00:03:36
um under the uh current sag-aftra regime
00:03:41
that is not necessarily true under the
00:03:45
wga strike so right now the ability to
00:03:48
even produce a show is more restricted
00:03:52
in technical terms by the wga strike
00:03:54
than by the actor strike now where it
00:03:57
gets more complicated is the ability of
00:04:00
people to participate in the event
00:04:03
uh yeah the actors
00:04:06
for the prime time Emmys for example
00:04:08
that announced this morning that they
00:04:10
are postponing to January
00:04:12
those actors working on Prime Time shows
00:04:15
are on strike and therefore they cannot
00:04:18
go out and promote those shows so even
00:04:20
if you did have a prime time Emmy show
00:04:22
they wouldn't be allowed to go to it
00:04:24
the stars of daytime soaps on the other
00:04:26
hand they are on under a different
00:04:28
contract so they're still working
00:04:30
they're not on strike they could
00:04:32
technically promote it but a lot of them
00:04:35
have other gigs at the same time
00:04:37
supplement their income and those jobs
00:04:39
are under strike and so it gets very
00:04:43
blurry there and I I think that we do
00:04:47
not want to be in any situation where we
00:04:50
are putting our members many of whom we
00:04:53
share with the Guild in a conflicted
00:04:56
position where they're coming to this
00:04:59
event and wondering wait am I crossing a
00:05:01
picket line or am I not am I violating
00:05:03
some some rule here this is a night to
00:05:07
celebrate
00:05:08
achievement in the craft to celebrate
00:05:10
the community and
00:05:13
no one should be there feeling
00:05:15
uncomfortable uh about it and so we're
00:05:18
not going to go there by a
00:05:21
threading the needle of legal
00:05:23
technicality yeah and so for all intents
00:05:25
and purposes as long as either Guild is
00:05:27
out the daytime Emmys are remaining
00:05:30
postponed well you mentioned obviously
00:05:32
the impact from the pandemic on the
00:05:34
award shows the last couple of years and
00:05:36
I would think that that really has
00:05:39
started that started the process of you
00:05:41
having to rethink your mindset about the
00:05:45
potential impacts and events that could
00:05:48
prevent an award show from going on and
00:05:51
maybe to a degree it's a little bit of a
00:05:53
different mindset than pre-pandemic you
00:05:55
know thinking about things like the
00:05:57
facility the the hotel where you're
00:05:58
going to do the show
00:06:00
that relationship probably you have to
00:06:03
write in probably different language
00:06:05
than maybe you did pre-pandemic
00:06:07
I I think that every year the Force
00:06:11
Major paragraph of these contracts gets
00:06:13
a lot more creative
00:06:15
and every year you realize there's
00:06:18
something else you forgot you know next
00:06:21
year we'll be writing in it's raining
00:06:23
frogs the rivers are boiling yeah uh I I
00:06:28
think though it it both these
00:06:30
experiences have certainly been a stark
00:06:34
reminder though of
00:06:37
what our business is
00:06:39
um I I joked I I became CEO only about a
00:06:42
year before the pandemic
00:06:44
and so a lot of friends had asked me at
00:06:47
the height of pandemic you know how's
00:06:48
how's the job going and I said well it's
00:06:50
been an interesting time to lead a large
00:06:52
public Gatherings business
00:06:53
and I think part of that is because uh
00:06:58
so much Focus had been on the ceremonies
00:07:03
um and what we began to to realize
00:07:07
during that period is that no the
00:07:10
ceremonies were simply an expression uh
00:07:14
of of the Core Business
00:07:16
The Core Business was ultimately that
00:07:19
mission statement that's been the
00:07:20
mission statement for years which is to
00:07:22
Foster and recognize excellence
00:07:25
and that ceremony
00:07:28
was one expression of that but it's not
00:07:31
the only way to to express that
00:07:33
ultimately the actual judging of the
00:07:37
competitions the recognition with an
00:07:38
Emmy Award
00:07:40
um the celebration of achievement in
00:07:42
that regard
00:07:44
um that's the coin of the realm and
00:07:49
you can toast with champagne you can
00:07:51
have dinner with your friends you can go
00:07:53
up on on stage and and celebrate it
00:07:56
but that's all all window dressing it
00:07:58
heightens it but it's not not core and
00:08:01
and so I think each of these experiences
00:08:04
as we look to try to find a silver
00:08:06
lining in them it's that it served to be
00:08:11
a strong reminder to to us and our
00:08:14
community what is the core of our our
00:08:16
business and not to be distracted by the
00:08:20
things that may wind up being
00:08:22
the biggest drivers of time and expense
00:08:24
and energy
00:08:26
and instead focus on what really is the
00:08:29
core value proposition the driver of
00:08:31
what we do and what keeps that
00:08:35
relationship going with our community
00:08:36
what was it that you were most looking
00:08:39
forward to with with this year's show
00:08:42
and element a celebration what was it
00:08:46
it was the 50th anniversary it was the
00:08:50
golden anniversary so it was a special
00:08:53
year half a century of daytime Emmys we
00:08:57
were going to be celebrating two icons
00:09:01
with lifetime achievement awards Susan
00:09:03
Lucci and Maury Povich uh Susan Lucci of
00:09:06
course uh famously uh the longest
00:09:11
running nominee without winning until
00:09:13
the streak was broken
00:09:16
um uh for her role as Erica Kane on All
00:09:18
My Children Maury Povich the longest
00:09:21
running daytime talk show host in
00:09:23
history that being a whole career Arc
00:09:26
after already having uh broken uh modes
00:09:31
uh molds on the entertainment news side
00:09:33
and and so forth
00:09:36
um those I think are two big parts of
00:09:39
the shows that we're really excited uh
00:09:42
to to move forward on
00:09:44
um
00:09:46
we're going to look back a bit over the
00:09:48
the 50 years
00:09:50
hopefully we'll still be able to to do
00:09:52
that this year
00:09:54
um if not if if the strikes persist well
00:09:56
into next year and it winds up becoming
00:09:58
some sort of hybrid 50th and 51st we'll
00:10:02
we'll still do that celebration yeah
00:10:05
um but uh but yeah I think those were
00:10:07
the highlights we were planning for I
00:10:10
read that the issue of transparency is
00:10:13
also one that is as talked about a lot
00:10:16
in regards to the award show and take us
00:10:20
into a little bit about why that
00:10:23
component is so important right now
00:10:26
well at the end of the day
00:10:29
and we we talked earlier about that Emmy
00:10:33
statue over my shoulder you know what
00:10:36
separates us from
00:10:39
the trophy company down the street
00:10:41
selling
00:10:42
Little League trophies
00:10:44
uh is not the value of
00:10:48
the zinc and gold that goes into the
00:10:51
statue itself
00:10:53
it is the value that we place on it
00:10:57
through the Integrity of the brand and
00:11:00
the process
00:11:02
the reason
00:11:05
networks and Studios will spend
00:11:08
thousands of dollars on entering the
00:11:11
competition on attending the ceremonies
00:11:13
on celebrating and promoting when they
00:11:15
are nominated and and they win is
00:11:18
because they have belief in the
00:11:21
Integrity of the process that
00:11:23
adjudicated
00:11:25
that that piece of content truly was the
00:11:29
most outstanding in its field in its
00:11:31
craft in that television year
00:11:35
and at a time when I think across
00:11:39
Society
00:11:41
faith in institutions
00:11:43
is probably at a generational low
00:11:46
it puts even more pressure on
00:11:50
organizations like ours I think to be
00:11:54
transparent and show the homework in
00:11:58
order to maintain that trust in the
00:12:00
process to maintain that faith that the
00:12:03
Integrity is there that it is a fair
00:12:05
process that if something is truly being
00:12:08
named the best it is getting there
00:12:11
through an equitable adjudication and
00:12:14
not through some gamesmanship or
00:12:17
favoritism well
00:12:19
well Adam we certainly look forward to
00:12:22
uh the Daytime Emmy Awards when they
00:12:24
occur at some point and get these
00:12:26
strikes all put back to uh pushed away
00:12:28
uh and everybody can get back to work
00:12:31
thanks very much for giving us a few
00:12:32
moments today thank you Adam sharp
00:12:35
president and CEO of the National
00:12:37
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
