SAG Awards 2018 to Feature Only Female Presenters

I am woman, hear me roar. The 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards is set to have all-female presenters announce and hand out the trophies come January when the show airs. And Kristen Bell will serve as the show’s first ever host.

“Culturally, there’s always been a conversation about equality,” Bell told The New York Times on Tuesday. “Now there’s some mega-spotlights on this conversation and, dare I say, some pyrotechnics in the background. I’m not the first female host. I’m the first host. The fact that a female was chosen to be the first one means my genitals become irrelevant.”

Will Bell touch the sexual harassment reckoning happening in Hollywood that’s certainly on everyone’s mind? She revealed, “An awards show is not as serious as the conversation deserves to be. And this night will celebrate women more than any other SAG Awards has and possibly more than any other show has.”

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The woman behind the decision is Kathy Connell, the show’s executive producer since 1995. She’s been a female advocate this year, joining the Women’s March in Washington in January, and she applauds the women coming forward to report sexual harassment.

Connell said to the NYT, “I feel pretty strongly about the women’s movement. Women stepped forward in such a huge way in this last year … I want to salute women who are coming forward to speak at a very difficult time about very difficult subjects at great risk to themselves.”

The feminist stance was even evident on Wednesday morning when Olivia Munn and Niecy Nash, two female actors, were the only ones to announce the 2018 nominees.

Actors Niecy Nash (L) and Olivia Munn announce the nominees for the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

But the question remains—how will the other 2018 awards show reflect this shift in culture?

24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Sunday, Jan. 21, TNT and TBS