The Screen Actors Guild Awards are getting a new name and a sharpened brand identity. Beginning with the 2026 ceremony, the long-running show will be known as The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA, aligning the telecast with its distinctive bronze statuette and spelling out for casual viewers that it is an event devoted specifically to performers in film and television. The shift was approved at a SAG-AFTRA board meeting in Los Angeles and announced on Friday.
The rebrand will take effect at the 32nd ceremony on March 1, 2026, which will stream live on Netflix as part of the guild’s multi-year partnership with the platform. For this current awards season, studios are being told they can still use “SAG Awards” in for-your-consideration materials to avoid confusion, but will be encouraged to switch to “The Actor Awards” language for final voting.
In an explanation posted to the show’s official site, SAG-AFTRA says the new title “simply” aligns the telecast with the statuette, which has been called The Actor since the show launched in 1995. The guild argues that spelling out “Actor Awards” makes the program easier to recognize for domestic and international audiences, especially in territories where the acronym “SAG” carries little meaning. Awards committee chair JoBeth Williams and showrunner Jon Brockett both framed the move as a natural evolution that centers actors and clarifies what viewers can expect when they tune in.
The change arrives after a decade of structural shifts. The ceremony, once a staple of NBC and later TNT and TBS, moved off cable and onto Netflix’s platform in 2024, expanding its reach beyond the United States. Industry observers have linked the new name to that streaming strategy, viewing it as an attempt to present a clean, internationally legible brand for an awards show that now streams live to more than 190 countries.
Reaction from performers and fans has been mixed. Supporters say The Actor Awards sounds more elegant and descriptive than the old acronym, while critics on social media have mocked the phrasing as generic or awkward and worried that downplaying “SAG” in the title could blur the union’s identity in a year when labor issues remain prominent. Some commentators have also questioned whether a new name alone can address broader concerns about awards-show relevance, even as the guild leans on Netflix’s global footprint to keep its ceremony in the center of awards season conversation.
