After a tumultuous period marked by scandal and controversy, the Golden Globes are set for a triumphant return with a revamped format, a for-profit model, and a significantly more diverse voting body.
The Golden Globes are all set for a comeback! The revamped group, now a for-profit endeavor with a larger and more diverse voting body, is announcing nominations today for its January awards show. With a larger and more diverse voting body, the 81st Golden Globe Awards promise a fresh start for the prestigious ceremony.
The nominations will be announced by Cedric the Entertainer and Wilmer Valderrama, beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern on CBSNews.com/GoldenGlobes. Following this, an additional 10 categories will be revealed on "CBS Mornings" at 8:30 a.m.
The excitement builds as the industry awaits the nominees in various categories, including the newly introduced ones for cinematic and box office achievement and the best stand-up comedian on television.
Analysts expect films like “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Poor Things” and “The Color Purple” will be among the top nominees.
The 81st Golden Globe Awards marks the first major broadcast of the awards season, finding a new home on CBS. Behind the scenes, the Golden Globes have undergone significant changes after a bombshell report in the Los Angeles Times revealed a lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization responsible for voting on the awards.
In response to the findings, stars and studios boycotted the Globes, leading NBC to refuse to air the ceremony in 2022.
After the group added journalists of color to its ranks and instituted other reforms to address ethical concerns, the show came back in January 2023 in a one-year probationary agreement with NBC. The network did not opt to renew.
In a groundbreaking move in June, billionaire Todd Boehly gained approval to dissolve the HFPA and transform the Golden Globes into a for-profit organization. The assets were acquired by Boehly's Eldridge Industries, along with dick clark productions. CBS subsequently announced the broadcast on Jan. 7, 2024, with streaming available on Paramount+.
The Golden Globe Awards had long been one of the highest-profile awards season broadcasts, second only to the Oscars. The show was touted as a boozy, A-list party, whose hosts often took a more irreverent tone than their academy counterparts. It also only honored the flashiest filmmaking categories — picture, director, actors among them — meaning no long speeches from visual effects supervisors or directors of shorts no one has heard of.
However, the small voting body of around 87 members, criticized for accepting lavish gifts and travel, led to controversies, including poorly reviewed film nominations with A-list talent. The revamped Golden Globes now boast a more diverse voting body of over 300 individuals from around the world, aiming to enhance fairness and credibility.
Some years, the HFPA was pilloried for nominating poorly reviewed films with big-name talent with hopes of getting them to the show, the most infamous being “The Tourist,” with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. In the past decade, they’ve more often overlapped with the Oscars. The show also recognizes television.
Before the expose and public relations crisis though, no one in the industry took much umbrage with who was voting on the awards.
The show had become an important part of the Hollywood awards ecosystem, a platform for Oscar hopefuls and was, until recently, a reliable ratings draw. As of 2019, it was still pulling in nearly 19 million viewers to the broadcast. This year, NBC’s Tuesday night broadcast got its smallest audience ever, with 6.3 million viewers.