TV Academy Slammed by Writers Guild for Moving Variety Writing Award Off Primetime Telecast ↗

By Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter:

The TV Academy is being slammed by the Writers Guild of America for apparently making the decision to remove the presentation of the outstanding writing for a variety series/special award from the Primetime Emmys telecast that will take place on Jan. 15, 2024.

In a missive sent on Tuesday to members of the WGA East and West, the guild’s top leadership — including WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and WGA West president Meredith Stiehm — calls the TV Academy’s move a “regrettable decision” and one “without any justification or defensible reason” which “devalues our profession.”

Wow, they really learned nothing from when the Oscars broadcast did this same thing in 2022. That wasn’t a good look either, and the Academy reversed course the following year, about as quickly as a slow-moving behemoth can do something.

To do this so soon after the resolution of the Writer’s Guild strike, too? Talk about tone-deaf and shameless.