BEVERLY HILLS, Calif (AP) — The Hollywood Foreign Press Association dared to let Ricky Gervais come back and host the Golden Globe Awards, a year after he insulted the organisation and nearly everyone in the star-studded room with his lacerating wit.

But Gervais and the show seemed tamer and more predictable this year, not quite living up to outrageous reputations. Even the winners themselves, including The Descendants and its star, George Clooney, were predictable.

The victory for The Descendants in the best drama category sets it up in an expected battle at the Academy Awards with The Artist, which won the award for best musical or comedy. Both had been front-runners all along among people who are in the business of prognosticating these things; Oscar nominations will be announced January 24, with the ceremony itself coming February 26.

Clooney won for his portrayal of a middle-aged husband struggling to raise his two daughters while their mother is in a coma. Jean Dujardin won the same award in the musical or comedy category for The Artist as a silent film actor whose career derails with the arrival of sound. (The Artist won the most film awards with three total, including one for Ludovic Bource’s original score.)

It took the presenters and winners themselves to liven up the programme — and that include Uggie, Dujardin’s scene-stealing Jack Russell terrier in The Artist, who performed some of his signature tricks on stage toward the end of the night.

While Gervais dropped an F-bomb a couple hours into the broadcast — likely an accident after some imbibing on and offstage — he also took aim at easy targets like Kim Kardashian. Later, wine glass in hand, he emerged from the wings to express delight in having “a job where you can get drunk and say what you want, and they still pay you”.

After he introduced Madonna with a series of hackneyed puns about her song titles, including Like a Virgin, the pop star shot back.