Golden Globes to return to NBC in January after year off-air
NEW YORK (AP) — After a year spent off-air, the Golden Globe Awards are returning to NBC in January, as the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association seeks a primetime comeback after more than a year of turmoil.
NBC, the Hollywood Press Association and dick clark productions on Tuesday made the Globes’ return official. The 80th Golden Globes will be held January 10, airing both on NBC and Peacock.
For the past year and half, Hollywood has effectively boycotted the Globes, for years one of the most-watched award shows after the Academy Awards. But after the Los Angeles Times reported ahead of the 2021 broadcast that the HFPA’s 87 members of non-American journalists included no Black members, studios, publicists and stars said they would cease participating in the Globes. Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globe awards.
Since then, the HFPA has reorganised itself, revamped its membership and enacted reforms designed to curtail the kinds of unethical behavior the group has long been criticised for. The HFPA added new members, including six Black voting members, and recently added 103 international, nonmember voters. The HFPA on Tuesday said their voting body is now 52 per cent female, 19.5 per cent Latino, 12 per cent Asian, 10 per cent Black and 10 per cent Middle Eastern.
“We recognise the HFPA’s commitment to ongoing change and look forward to welcoming back the Golden Globes to NBC for its landmark 80th Anniversary in January 2023,” said Frances Berwick, chairman of entertainment networks for NBCUniversal.
This year’s ceremony, the organisations said, will be broadcast in a one-year agreement. Terms were unavailable but the deal is expected to be less than the approximately $60 million the network previously paid annually to air the Globes. With backlash swirling and the ceremony scaled down because of the pandemic, the 2021 Globes were watched by 6.9 million people, according to Nielsen, down from more than 18 million the year before.
Whether NBC’s endorsement will be enough to return the Globes to Hollywood’s good graces, however, remains to be seen.