NBC will not air the Golden Globes in 2022, the network said in a statement on Monday morning. This means the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will now have to decide how or if it will move forward next year without its broadcast partner, or more swiftly enact changes demanded by industry leaders regarding the org’s membership and processes.
“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform,” NBC said in a statement. “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.”
The HFPA, which hands out the Golden Globe Awards, has been under fire for months, following an initial exposé by the Los Angeles Times about both the small, insular organization’s questionable financial practices, as well as paltry record of diversity and representation (including an entire lack of Black members). Last week, the group released a framework for reform that includes measures to increase the number of people of color in its ranks. The plan, which was approved on Thursday, also includes new restrictions on gifts that the members could receive and payments for work on their committees.
According to insiders, NBC, which broadcasts the Globes, and Dick Clark Prods., which produces the ceremony, stand by statements they released soon after the announcement, expressing encouragement that the HFPA was taking the industry’s concerns seriously.
But NBC execs were concerned that the HFPA hadn’t set a timeline for change, and the network had seen no movement on how it might rethink its membership goals. NBC had wanted to see a comprehensive plan that included a doubling of the HFPA membership plus one — meaning that the number of new members would outweigh the old membership.
NBC execs continued asking the HFPA for a calendar, and after not seeing a timeline — despite the reform plan announced a week ago — the network decided that it became clear there couldn’t be a show in 2022.
That also came after several major players in the awards space, including Netflix, Amazon and WarnerMedia, revealed that they were boycotting the Globes and the HFPA until they could be assured that real change is coming to the HFPA.
Without those entities’ talent, and without the support of most major players in the awards space, it also became clear to NBC that a 2022 Golden Globes would be unrealistic.
The announcement could very well serve as a permanent break between the Globes and NBC; insiders said it will now be up to lawyers to determine the status of the relationship between NBC, Dick Clark Prods. and the HFPA going forward. In 2018, NBC signed a new broadcast license deal with the HFPA to air the Globes at $60 million, believed to be triple the previous licensing fee.
The HFPA has clashed with both NBC and Dick Clark Prods. in the past: In 2014, the HFPA and Dick Clark Prods. settled a lawsuit after the org questioned DCP’s contractual authority to continue producing the show. And in 2008, when the writers strike scrapped the in-person Golden Globes, NBC opted to produce its own special announcing the winners rather than carry the HFPA’s official press conference naming the victors.
Source: Variety