Controversial Golden Globes Just Hit With A Devastating Blow
This year's Golden Globes suffered its lowest ratings in its history.
While there were many winners on Tuesday night, overall, the Golden Globe Awards and NBC didn’t quite hit the mark, bringing in an abysmally low number of viewers. Deadline reports that after making the decision to not air the ceremony last year, and a major crash in ratings from 2020 to 2021, this was the biggest cut yet to the annual Hollywood event. Held on Tuesday night, a choice that only further hampered numbers, Nielsen data recorded that the televised award show only brought in 6.3 million viewers.
To catch you up, a decision was made last year to pull the 80th Golden Globe Awards from live television after a major scandal broke that involved the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). The HFPA is the entity behind the major award show and they were accused of racism, ethical wrongdoings, and financial mishandling. While the show would go on silently with no one receiving their honors on-air, the choice was made this year to head to live TV.
Just months before COVID hit in January 2020, the Golden Globes were held with a whopping 18.3 million people glued to their screens at home. Then, something happened and the number was cut by nearly two-thirds as 2021 saw a viewership rating of a measly 6.9 million. With this year’s 6.3 million, things are looking worse and worse for the fate of the awards show.
With the dark shadow of controversy still hanging over the Golden Globe Awards, host Jerrod Carmichael used his opening monologue to address the wrongdoings of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. “I’m here ‘cause I’m Black,” the comedian said during his welcome bit before ripping into the group behind the Globes. He went on to regale the audience with the story of how he was asked to helm this year’s award show, driving home the point that while the organization says that it’s changed, he doesn’t believe that to be the case – but hey, $500,000 is $500,000, and there’s no arguing with that.
The Golden Globe Awards host didn’t save all his zingers for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as he had plenty saved up for Tom Cruise and Scientology. There were also plenty of heartfelt speeches, and more than one drunk recipient stumbling on stage to make their remarks. There were also plenty of shout-outs to Brad Pitt who happened to have a front-row seat to this year’s spectacle.
Some of this year’s big winners included The Fabelman’s director Steven Spielberg for Best Motion Picture and Michelle Yeoh who took home the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her work in the critically acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once. Meanwhile, Angela Bassett was finally given the praise that she deserved for portraying Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever by receiving the award for Best Supporting Actress in Any Motion Picture. The White Lotus unsurprisingly bagged the award for Best Television Limited Series or Anthology Series.
And although it certainly wasn’t as talked about as last year’s Academy Awards that saw Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, you better believe that comedian mastermind Eddie Murphy used his time on stage to joke about the slap heard ‘round the world.
