Ken Howard Elected First President of SAG-AFTRA

Ken Howard (White Shadow, 30 Rock, Dynasty, Melrose Place), two term president of the Screen Actors Guild has been elected the first president of the combined SAG-AFTRA. Howard has been co-president since the merger took effect March 30, 2012.

Co-president Roberta Reardon is running for president of the union's New York local. Results from that election were not available at press time.

Amy Aquino (Glee, Law & Order, Castle, Monk, ER, CSI, Everybody Loves Raymond), who had served two terms as SAG secretary-treasurer of SAG, was elected first secretary of the merged union. Both two-year terms begin immediately.

Both Howard and Aquino were elected by comfortable margins, though turnout was nothing to write home about. Of the almost 140,00 ballots mailed out to elibigle members, only 28,755 were returned, or only 20.54%. Howard received 16,396 votes to 9,850 for second-place Esai Morales.

Aguino received 17,590 votes to Jane Austin's 10,622.

SAG-AFTRA represents over 165,000 actors, announcers, journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers and editors, hosts, singers, stunt men and women, voiceover artists and many others.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.