Gold getters
The 80th Golden Globe Awards ceremony last night saw big wins for Spielberg’s Fabelmans, which won best drama and scooped the legendary filmmaker best director for the third time at the Globes, as well as dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin.
In recent years, however, the TV and film award ceremonies themselves haven’t exactly been a roaring success, having been marred by controversy, lockdowns, and low viewing figures.
Comeback special
NBC, which has been broadcasting the awards nationally for nearly 6 decades, ditched last year’s ceremony in a mass boycott against Globe organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The group faced accusations of bribery and racial discrimination — a fact this year’s host, comedian Jerrod Carmichael, didn’t shy away from.
But even before last year’s controversy, the Globes' ability to pull a crowd had been waning. 2021’s Zoom-reliant awards were seen by 6.9m viewers — the lowest figure for over 20 years (except 2008 when there was a writers’ strike).
Waning interest is also apparent online, with Google searches for the Globes trending downwards over the last few years, and always lower when compared to rival award-givers, the Oscars.
Whilst viewership data for this year’s Globes has not yet been published, the wide gap between fan favorites and winners suggests that — even if they did tune in — Globeheads might not be happy.
