Golden Globes telecast draws near-record low audience

NEW YORK –

NBC’s telecast for the eightieth Golden Globes on Tuesday averaged a near-record low of 6.3 million viewers, in line with Nielsen, the second-smallest viewers for the annual ceremony and solely barely higher than the viewership garnered by the Globes press convention held in the course of the 2008 writers’ strike.

After a variety and ethics scandal brought on NBC to take the Globes off the air final yr, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s tried comeback did not achieve again viewers and as an alternative could have misplaced them. The 2021 version, held bicoastally in the course of the pandemic, was watched by 6.9 million. The pre-pandemic 2020 Globes drew an viewers of 18.4 million.

There had been a number of variations within the broadcast this yr. NBC moved the present from its conventional Sunday slot to Tuesday. That meant no competitors from the NFL but in addition no soccer lead-in. The awards had been additionally dwell streamed on Peacock for the primary time. (Digital viewership wasn’t launched Wednesday.)

Awards present scores have steeply fallen lately. But Tuesday’s Golden Globes, hosted by Jerrod Carmichael, was a pivotal second for the embattled HFPA, which places them on.

After a 2021 report revealed the press affiliation had no Black members, stars and studios boycotted the Globes. Last yr’s awards had been unceremoniously held in a Beverly Hilton ballroom with none stars in attendance. Over the final yr and a half, the HFPA has enacted reforms and revamped its membership to now quantity 96 folks, together with six Black voting members.

In the interim, NBC reworked its contract with the Globes and was broadcasting this yr’s Globes on a one-year foundation. The HFPA offered the Globes final yr to Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, which is popping it from a nonprofit to a for-profit enterprise. The agency additionally owns Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Globes, and the award present’s longtime house, the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

Tuesday’s Globes featured wins for Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” the indie sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the Irish darkish comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” the HBO collection “White Lotus” and the general public faculty sitcom “Abbott Elementary.”