Golden Globes returns with changes, added diversity
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The Golden Globe Awards are back Sunday with plenty of behind-the-scenes changes aimed at cementing a yearslong comeback effort.
The show is known for its boozy celebration of film and television and as an early stop for awards season contenders. Scandals have led to a membership revamp and a new broadcaster, but a key question remains: Will viewers tune in?
Viewers in the United States can catch the ceremony, broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel, beginning at 7 p.m. CST.
The three-hour show will have a strong lead-in since CBS is airing an NFL game before it.
CBS says the show will air on its app and stream on Paramount+, but there’s an important caveat. Only Paramount+ subscribers with the Showtime add-on will be able to watch the show live. Otherwise, it’ll be available on the streaming platform on Monday.
The 81st Golden Globe Awards will be the first major broadcast of awards season, with a new home on CBS. And while to audiences it might look similar on the surface, it’s been a tumultuous few years behind the scenes following a bombshell report in the Los Angeles Times. The 2021 report found that there were no Black members in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which voted on the awards.
Stars and studios boycotted the Globes and NBC refused to air it in 2022 as a result. After the group added journalists of color to its ranks and instituted other reforms to address ethical concerns, the show came back in January 2023 in a oneyear probationary agreement with NBC. The network did not opt to renew.
In June, billionaire Todd Boehly was granted approval to dissolve the HFPA and reinvent the Golden Globes as a for-profit organization. Its assets were acquired by Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, along with Dick Clark Productions, a group that is owned by Penske Media whose assets also include Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Billboard.
Comedian Jo Koy, who has headlined several Netflix specials and starred in last year’s comedy film “Easter Sunday,” will host the Globes.
Organizers cited his “infectious energy and relatable humor” in announcing Koy would headline the event.
Hosting the Globes typically requires serving a mix of biting humor to the audience of film and television stars and keeping the ceremony from getting too sloppy.
Previous hosts include Ricky Gervais, whose jokes were particularly caustic, the duo of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and last year’s emcee, Jerrod Carmichael.
“Barbie” is the top nominee this year, followed closely by “Oppenheimer.”
The films reflect one unique aspect of the Globes — they split the top film winners into two categories. With Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” leading the way, it gives the show a chance to capitalize on the “Barbenheimer” craze that boosted theaters in 2023.
Films nominated for best motion picture drama include “Oppenheimer,” Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”
In the best motion picture musical or comedy category, “Barbie” was joined by Ben Affleck’s “Air,” Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.”
“Succession” was the top-nominated television program, with nine nods including for series stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, followed by Hulu’s “The Bear.”
The Golden Globes had long been one of the highest-profile awards broadcasts, second only to the Oscars.
The show was touted as an A-list party whose hosts often took a more irreverent tone than their Academy counterparts. It also only honored the flashiest filmmaking categories — picture, director, actors among them — meaning no long speeches from visual effects supervisors or directors of little-known shorts.
But the voting body was a small group of around 87 members who wielded incredible influence in the industry and often accepted lavish gifts and travel from studios and awards publicists eager to court favor and win votes.
Some years, the HFPA was pilloried for nominating poorly reviewed films with big-name talent in hopes of getting them to the show — the most infamous being “The Tourist,” with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. In the past decade, they’ve more often overlapped with the Oscars. The show also recognizes television.
Before the exposé and public relations crisis though, no one in the industry took much umbrage with who was voting on the awards. The show had become an important part of the Hollywood awards ecosystem, a platform for Oscar hopefuls and was, until recently, a reliable ratings draw. As of 2019, the broadcast was still pulling in nearly 19 million viewers. In 2023, NBC’s Tuesday night broadcast got its smallest audience ever for a traditional broadcast, with 6.3 million viewers.