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Source: Variety
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the globe and took a major toll on the film industry, the relevance of the televised awards show has long become increasingly questionable. What were once major ratings draws, garnering tens of millions of viewers each year, have now struggled to reach even a fraction of their earlier successes, let alone successes at that exact same level. The absence of open movie theaters in the previous year certainly didn’t help matters, with there being few films nominated by the major awards organizations that were able to attract significant interest in the general public. The result was record low ratings for these ceremonies, with the Golden Globes in particular receiving the lowest viewer count since the 1990s (less than 7 million views to be exact). One would like to think that’s the only reason why the future of the Golden Globes are fairly uncertain at the moment, but recent controversies and the fallout to come of it unfortunately suggest otherwise.
On Monday, May 10th, NBC, the television network that had aired the Golden Globes each year for the past few decades, announced that it will not air the upcoming 2022 ceremony, bringing their partnership with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that hands out the awards and puts together the ceremony, to an abrupt halt, possibly even a permanent end should the situation take a turn for the worse. While the record low ratings likely played some role in the network’s decision, NBC claimed that most of their reasoning is due to ongoing criticisms of how the HFPA has handled its business, including issues of diversity and inclusion criticisms that go back very far in the organization’s history.
Another concern that many have had with the Golden Globes is how it goes about choosing certain films and television shows to nominate, if not outright give any of its major awards. With there being less than a hundred total people included in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, many have raised questions about whether or not such a small group has made themselves susceptible to bribery and other forms of persuasion from producers of potential Golden Globe nominees. The most recent example of such an incident involves the financial benefits given by the producers of the Netflix television series “Emily in Paris”, a show that received mixed reviews when its first season premiered and was not generally considered to be worthy of any major awards. Its appearance in many categories, including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, came as a shock to many, raising questions as to how and why the show received so many nominations. A later reveal that some HFPA members’ stay at a hotel had connections to the “Emily in Paris” junket only made these suspicions grow stronger, causing many to claim that the show’s Golden Globe nominations were not entirely legitimate.
Although there haven’t been quite as many incidents of a similar nature in recent years, certain Golden Globe nominations have still been called into question, especially when it comes to films that did not receive the most favorable reception from critics and audience. The 2010 film “The Tourist” was one such film, with many even joking about how the film received a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy despite being neither a musical nor a comedy, and most recently, the 2020 film “Music”, directed and produced by pop singer Sia, was nominated in the same category despite not only being more negatively received by critics, but also garnered its own controversy from its inaccurate and harmful depiction of autistic people.
With so many controversies building on top of each other, it was only a matter of time before they began to take their toll on the Golden Globes. With NBC dropping the next ceremony and such media giants as Netflix and Warner Media pulling their support as well, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is not in the best shape at the moment. Unless it’s able to effectively address its criticisms and enact greater change in how it conducts its affairs, the HFPA and the Golden Globes’ remaining days may indeed be numbers.
