Golden Globe Awards Permanently Cancelled After Diversity Outrage
The Golden Globes have been officially canceled with NBC announcing they would no longer be airing the awards show next year.
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The Golden Globes were already on thin ice this year stemming from a variety of issues, namely bad ratings with a healthy dose of controversy. And it looks like it’s all maybe caught up with the show and the group that hosts the proceedings. The Golden Globes have been officially canceled with Movie Web reporting that NBC has dumped the 2022 show from its roster. Though the awards show itself could be picked up elsewhere, that’s looking pretty unlikely at this point.
The issue around the Golden Globe Awards show has less to do with the actual ceremony and program (which admittedly is kind of a joke anyway) and more about the group that runs it, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The group has been under considerable fire of late for the lack of diversity in its ranks and had been dragged hard for a number of different folks it had brought on to be part of the group. The Association hadn’t disclosed its membership publicly for years, but then a Los Angeles Times story reported that the group didn’t have a single black voting member. This, among other things, began the public backlash against the group and, by proxy, the awards show.
When the Los Angeles Times first reported on the lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a number of Hollywood elites, through their public relations firms, sent out a mass message calling for reform in the HFPA or they would face boycotting the Golden Globes. To this, the HFPA issued a statement saying they would strive for more transparency and would begin to admit members with more of an eye towards diversity. If this latest move by NBC is any indication, the changes weren’t meaningful enough.
NBC issued a statement on Monday that detailed why they had chosen to drop the 2022 Golden Globes show. Here’s what they had to say about the move:
“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right. As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023
Now, it doesn’t take a public relations scholar to notice that they are leaving the door open for future shows if the HFPA deals with its apparent issues. They are non-specific about the plan to execute though it stands to reason it is around the aforementioned transparency of its member roll and making sure it’s up to even the most base level of diversity standards. There’s some chance we see the return of the Golden Globes in some fashion, though one could also make the easy assumption that no one will really miss the event.
Considering this past year saw the Golden Globes ratings plummet off a proverbial cliff with only 6.9 million viewers showing up to watch, a 63% year-over-year dip (understatement) it might be a tough sell to ever bring it back. And it wasn’t like awards shows were a hot item this year anyway. The Academy Awards have seen diminishing returns for years now with the 2021 show hitting its all-time low. Are we seeing the end of the movie award pageantry? This could be the first death knell.
Again, there is still some chance that the Golden Globes end up making a comeback or another outlet picks up the leftovers and airs something. I doubt it considering other big players like Netflix and Amazon have already cut ties with the group. Anything is possible, though a canceling like this in Hollywood usually means the end of you for at least some time.
