After a year’s absence, the Golden Globe Price Will be back NBC in 2023, several high-level sources briefed on the plan tell The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Associationthe beleaguered organization of non-American journalists and photographers behind the golden globescame under heavy fire just before the 2021 ceremony when a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times revealed that the HFPA at the time included zero black among its then 87 members and had engaged in unethical conduct and suspicious financial practices. The resulting uproar drove many Hollywood constituencies, including a large contingent Hollywood publicists, to boycott the HFPA (Tom Cruise even returned the three Globes he had received), and prompted NBC to refuse to broadcast a Globes ceremony in 2022.
The network is focusing on a Tuesday, January 10 air date. The Globes have historically been held on a Sunday in January, but the first Sunday in January 2023 is New Year’s Day; the second is January 8, which is the last day of the NFL regular season, which conflicts with NBC Sunday Night Football; and the third is January 15, which the Critics Choice Awards have already staked their claim on – hence the move to a Tuesday.
Representatives for NBC and the HFPA declined to comment for this story.
The return of the Globes to network television marks a victory – albeit a controversial one – for Todd Boehlythe sports and entertainment mogul who served as interim CEO of the HFPA since October 2021and whose investment company, Eldridge Industries, bought the HFPA in July and took ownership of longtime Globes producer Dick Clark Productions from MRC August 5. Eldridge Industries also has an equity stake in Cain International, which has an interest at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the venue for the Globes, and at THRwhich is owned by Penske Media.
With the exception of last year, NBC has aired the Globes every year since 1996, and in 2018, through parent company NBCUniversal, pledged to pay the HFPA and DCP $60 million a year to have the right to continue broadcasting the ceremony until 2026. But after the Los Angeles Time presentation and widespread industry reaction, NBC said in a statement at the time, “We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we believe the HFPA needs time to get it right.
The HFPA started quickly adopt major reforms – among them, prohibit members from accepting gifts and the removal of a cap on new member additions, which allowed it to to add 21 new members, including six black – but around a quarter of its own members voted against the changes, while a few others questioned the sincerity of the organization and resigned. Additionally, none of the titular members were eliminated from the organization by the implementation of what were announced as stricter accreditation standards.
The HFPA has also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way by going ahead with a 2022 Globes Ceremony; ultimately, the January 9 rally was not attended by any talent or broadcast in any way. And in March, Sunshine Sachs, the HFPA’s longtime public relations firm, leaveNext a D&I advisor and a PR crisis advisor outside.
Eighteen months after the Los Angeles Time exposed, many in Hollywood still view the HFPA as ethically dodgy. Indeed, many eyebrows were raised when it emerged that the acquisition of the HFPA by Eldridge Industries would not only result in the organization’s conversion to a for-profit organization (while also creating a separate non-profit entity for philanthropic efforts), but also that HFPA members would now earn an annual salary of $75,000, and that a group of outside journalists who will be invited to vote for the Globes (to increase the diversity of the vote) would receive nothing.
Still, more than a few in town, including a faction of the publicist coalition that led the charge against the HFPA in 2021, have softened their stance and want to get back to business as usual. One reason, of course: The Globes telecast, which is usually the highest-rated awards show of film awards season before the Oscars, financially bolsters many of their Oscar-promising projects and people.
The HFPA has seized on this divide in recent weeks by forming an advisory board of publicists supportive of the idea of renewed relations, while sending the broader group of publicists a briefing summarizing the organization’s progress and intentions. for the future, in which they said they had “answered the call for change” and “increased diversity, transparency and accountability”.
It remains to be seen who will work with the HFPA – and perform at the Globes – in the coming months.