Golden Globes draws near record-low audience

2023-01-13 -

MIAMI — The map was called “Beach Trip” and was blasted out to more than 18,000 members of a public Telegram channel called, in Portuguese, “Hunting and Fishing.”

But instead of outdoor recreation tips, the 43 pins spread across the map of Brazil pointed to cities where bus transportation to the capital could be found for what promoters promised would a huge “party” on January 8.

“Children and the elderly aren’t invited,” according to the post circulated on the Telegram channel, which has since been removed. “Only adults willing to participate in all the games, including target shooting of police and robbers, musical chairs, indigenous dancing, tag, and others.”

The post was one of several thinly coded messages circulating on social media ahead of Sunday’s violent attack on the capital by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro looking to restore the farright leader to power.

It’s also now a potentially vital lead in a fledgling criminal investigation about how the rampage was organised and how officials missed clues to a conspiracy that, like the January 6 attack on the US Capitol two years ago, appears to have been organized and carried out in plain view.

And like the attack in the US, the Brazilian riots demonstrate how social media makes it easier than ever for anti-democratic groups to recruit followers and transform online rhetoric into offline action.

NEW YORK — NBC’s telecast for the 80th Golden Globes on Tuesday averaged a near-record low of 6.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen, the second-smallest audience for the annual ceremony and only slightly better than the viewership garnered by the Globes press conference held during the 2008 writers’ strike.

After a diversity and ethics scandal caused NBC to take the Globes off the air last year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s attempted comeback didn’t gain back viewers and instead may have lost them. The 2021 edition, held bicoastally during the pandemic, was watched by 6.9 million. The pre-pandemic 2020 Globes drew an audience of 18.4 million.

There were several differences in the broadcast this year. NBC moved the show from its traditional Sunday slot to Tuesday. That meant no competition from the NFL but also no football lead-in. The awards were also live streamed on Peacock for the first time. (Digital viewership wasn’t released Wednesday.) Awards show ratings have steeply fallen in recent years.

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■ 1700s: Excavation of Pompeii begins. House of Vettii excavated 1894-95

House of Vettii: Well preserved domus*, built in second century BC and owned by two former slaves

Peristyle garden

Large theatre

Punishment of Ixion: Depicts Ixion, son of Ares, being punished for

betraying Zeus

Rome

Pompeii

ITALY

Mount Vesuvius

Ercolano (Herculaneum)