Just one week has passed since wildfires began ravaging Southern California, but in seven days time, the destruction caused to hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles residents is sobering and incalculable. The fires are raging at a particularly precarious time for L.A., a city heralded worldwide as the epicenter of Western entertainment. Those in the industry and all who keep up with it know January as the official start of the entertainment awards season. Typically, this is when Hollywood holds its most glitzy parties and nominee luncheons for the in-crowd, while a slew of sprawling awards shows dot the calendar almost every weekend until the Oscars ceremony in March.
But tragedy doesn’t cherry-pick who or what it affects. The wildfires’ devastation is far-reaching, and the ripples of their catastrophe have disrupted all of Hollywood, and in turn, awards season. Huge productions have shut down, nomination announcement dates and awards ceremonies have been moved or put on hold and big premieres have been canceled entirely. While it’s unfortunately hard to predict when the fires will cease to the point that Los Angeles can safely look forward again, there’s no doubt that we'll be seeing the effects of this disaster for months to come.
What does that mean for those lucky enough not to be personally affected by the wildfires, who closely follow awards season or rely on their favorite shows and highly anticipated films to brighten up their new year? Well, that’s a question with no simple answer. Like the writers in actors strikes in 2023, Hollywood hitting pause will put some of your favorite entertainment on pause, too. And though delays may be vexing, they’re also a critical opportunity to consider just how much effort it takes from all of those above and below the line to craft the media we watch, and how easy it can be to take the comfort we derive from that entertainment for granted.
Shortly after the fires broke out, Amazon MGM Studios announced that it was canceling the premiere of “Unstoppable,” Prime Video’s new biopic about wrestler Anthony Robles that stars Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome. It was the first notable Hollywood cancellation as the industry scrambled in the wake of the wildfires, but a string of others followed as destruction grew. Apple TV+ scrapped the premiere of “Severance” Season 2, Universal canceled the premiere of “Wolf Man” and several awards season events like the BAFTA tea and cocktail parties celebrating “Saturday Night” and “Emilia Pérez” were postponed or halted altogether.
There is also a bevy of running productions that stopped in their tracks. “Abbott Elementary,” “NCIS,” “Loot,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” are just four of the wildly popular series that have had to halt production. After winning multiple Golden Globes in the Jan. 5 ceremony, “Hacks” co-creator and star Paul W. Downs referenced an early call time the next morning in his acceptance speech. Mere hours after that call time rolled around, the show’s production was shut down.
Such a vast assortment of television series being affected by these disastrous conditions means that a wide range of viewer demographics are about to see their favorite programming interrupted, and with them, a host of people who work on those shows will face yet another industry work stoppage. Thousands of below-the-line workers and creatives — those on the technical crews and production teams — were already hobbling back after the pandemic and the strikes suspended work for months at a time. Now, the fires present another unpredictable setback and heaps of new challenges to grapple with.
While the entertainment industry has been known to expand and contract according to economic conditions, the events of the first half of the 2020s have been unprecedented. “Survive ‘Til ’25” became a mantra adapted by those across the industry, hoping to recoup the losses of the last four years. But with the fires persisting throughout Hollywood and L.A., the idea of survival looks a whole lot different than it did just a few weeks ago. In the final days of 2024, the Los Angeles Times checked in with below-the-line workers the paper had profiled six months earlier. The piece was meant to be a state of the union for an industry and its workers ahead of a pivotal year. Now, the story reads like a grim harbinger of what was to come.
In a separate Los Angeles Times story, producers and editors weighed in on how the fires are halting production, making clear that this is an ongoing catastrophe that affects both above and below-the-line workers in Hollywood. And though few release schedules for affected television shows have been impacted, more postponements along those lines are likely not far off. And if those release schedules are upset, the landscape of available entertainment will look different for some time. Los Angeles accounts for a relatively small percentage of United States-based film and television production but with the amount of prominent, well-rated television shows that are shot within the city, mounting noticeable recovery will take time. “Euphoria” and “Power” producer Gary Lennon noted in the same Los Angeles Times story that he thinks production will resume the moment it’s safe to continue, and that there will be no shortage of people who need the work. However, the sizable reach of the wildfires means that workers will face stiff competition regarding jobs.
The conversation about how Hollywood can directly assist those in its ranks affected by the fires is a more prickly one, especially as the industry tries to decipher whether awards season can proceed. The Critics Choice Association pushed back the date of its awards ceremony from Jan. 12 to Jan. 26, while the Producers Guild of America and the Academy have both delayed the date they’ll announce the nominees for the PGA Awards and the Oscars, respectively. Within the time of writing, the Academy pushed the Oscar nominations from its first rescheduled date of Jan. 19 by a few more days to Jan. 23 and Universal Music Group has canceled all of its Grammy-related events. Whether any of those dates will hold is a matter of the course nature takes, but that hasn’t stopped awards season devotees and those in the entertainment industry from expressing their aggravation.
Shortly after the PGA delayed their awards nominations, several X users voiced their confusion in response. “They can literally just release a statement with nominations, it’s not that hard,” one user wrote. Some speculated that the delay could result in awards shakeups given that no film campaigns have been properly suspended. Others, like critics Brandon Lewis and Kenzie Vanunu, have decried the continuing worry about whether or not awards season will move forward as planned. “As someone who loves awards season, it can wait,” Lewis wrote on X.
“Hacks” star Jean Smart echoed these sentiments on Instagram last week, shortly after taking home her own Golden Globe for her performance in the show’s third season. “With ALL due respect,” Smart’s statement began, “during Hollywood’s season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and the firefighters.
Smart’s words reflect the opinion of many both in and outside the entertainment industry, who see the glamour of awards season persisting in the face of mass wreckage as tone-deaf. Another side of the conversation happened in the comments section of Smart’s post. Makeup artist Benjamin Puckey wrote, “I completely understand the desire to support those affected by the fires, but awards season provides essential work for so many.” Puckey noted fellow makeup artists as well as “drivers, stylists, riggers, and countless others behind the scenes” who would be affected by an all-out cancellation of the Oscars and other ceremonies — especially in a period when paid jobs are critical for those who have lost their livelihoods and homes in the fires. Talent producer Kate Tuckwood agreed, saying, “Those ‘below-the-line’ rely on awards season financially to get us through the year.” Makeup artist Lilly Keys added: “Many artists in our community have already lost their homes to the fires, and their livelihoods are tied to this short but vital period. If we don’t work during these critical months, we don’t earn.”
It’s evident that the wildfires aren’t just causing ongoing destruction, they’re also dividing Los Angeles’ most notable industry. In times of strife and disaster, the discussion around what is and is not ethical becomes all the more complex. Where is entertainment’s place when tragedy strikes, and is it in poor taste to forge on? We use entertainment as a form of relief in dark moments, and yet, the things like feel-good television and awards shows that bring us hope, joy and a little time to switch our brains off are now directly tied to our collective anxiety.
Social media isn’t exactly the go-to place to find relief from that worry, much less a nuanced dialogue about it. Yet, social media has been an essential way for those who work in Hollywood to highlight the intricacies of this unprecedented moment in history, and remind us that the entertainment we love has countless hands that aid in its construction. There is no straightforward answer to where the entertainment industry will go from here, or even whether it can recover after being hit with so many setbacks in such a short amount of time. But with Netflix and Comcast pledging to each donate $10 million to relief efforts, and stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Beyoncé kicking in millions of their own, those within the industry have already committed to helping Los Angeles prosper again. And for those who love entertainment, seeing the Oscars go forward as a partial telethon could make celebrating Hollywood’s biggest night far less odious. If we already have our phones in our hands, doomscrolling while reading about the fragile state of entertainment, we should at least have a way to kick in a few bucks while we’re at it.
