Ending speculation that the SAG Awards might make the leap to another broadcaster, cabler TNT has renewed its agreement with SAG to continue carrying the union's kudocast for another two years.
In five of the seven years it has aired on TNT, the kudocast has shown ratings upticks: Largest audience came in 2003, when 4.8 million viewers tuned in, but last year's results were down significantly, catching only 3.3 million viewers.
Many had speculated that the show might migrate to one of the big four broadcasters in a retooled format, but after this year's Golden Globes performed poorly and with the Emmys undergoing an extreme makeover, few nets seemed interested in picking up yet another awards show.
Announcement comes as TNT prepares to telecast the 11th iteration of the SAG Awards on Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT) from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles.
Awards began in 1995 and have been at TNT since 1998. They were the first televised awards to acknowledge the work of union members and the only to be selected exclusively by actors' peers.
Plaudit fest will honor outstanding perfs from 2004 in five film categories and eight television categories, including ensemble awards, which commend the collaborative performance by a cast in a motion picture and by the ensemble casts of both comedy and dramatic TV series.
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