Golden Globes: a paradoxical tale of audience recovery and historic criticism

The 81st edition managed to attract 9.4 million viewers, a figure surpassing those of 2023 and 2021 but far from the audiences of its best period.

Estatuilla de los Golden Globes durante una ceremonia — (Cordon Press)

Published by

Rosana Rábago Sainz

9 de enero, 2024

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The 81st edition of the Golden Globes faced a significant challenge: reinventing itself. After two years of real crisis, which even included a change of ownership, this Sunday's gala presented a golden opportunity, but it was squandered.

At least that is the conclusion drawn by critics from the country's most important entertainment media, such as Vanity Fair, who called this 81st edition, broadcast for the first time on CBS instead of NBC, as "a near-total disaster," "unfunny," and a "new low." Variety also defined the ceremony as a "disaster":

It turns out this year’s Globes were still a trainwreck — just not the kind one likes to watch. At just a hair over three hours, the ceremony was efficient on paper, but felt interminable in practice. With forced banter, ill-conceived staging and a woefully unqualified MC, this year’s show was hardly a triumphant return, let alone a showcase for a new and improved Golden Globes.

Controversy over Jo Koy's role as host of the Golden Globes

The Hollywood Reporter critic Daniel Fienberg was not much kinder and assured that Sunday's edition was "the dullest awards" he had ever seen, including that telematic ceremony that took place in the middle of the pandemic:

Despite seeming even more densely star-studded than usual, Sunday night’s 81st Golden Globe Awards telecast was the dullest awards show I’ve ever watched — and I’m including every solemn and uncomfortable awards show aired during the COVID pandemic, when people were producing shows via Zoom and having hosts film in their own garages, the sense of joy replaced by pervasive melancholy. This show didn’t have joy or melancholy or much of anything. It was a bad telecast, and the only reason I’m not calling it “a bad telecast from start to finish” is that there were good speeches here and there, as well as some decent winners, suggesting that the voting overhaul may, indeed, have resulted in a mysterious membership possessing less-than-egregious taste.

The cause? Its presenter, Jo Koy. His opening monologue managed to upset not only those attending the ceremony, but also the public who saw the show and who quickly took to social networks to show their rejection of the speech with which the comedian began the gala:

Slight improvement in audience data

Despite all this, the Golden Globes managed to rescue part of the lost audience. More specifically, 9.4 million viewers gathered around the sofa to see if it could regain its lost glory.

Those 9.4 million represent 50% more audience than in 2023, when only 6.3 million viewers decided to watch the show. It was the second lowest figure in history, only surpassed by that of 2008, when only 6.08 million decided to give the gala a chance.

The data for 2021 were not as desired either and attracted some 6.9 million viewers, who chose that night to watch the Golden Globes that promised to be different from all those held previously.

Graph of audience data recorded by the Golden Globes in recent years.

The controversy

It should be noted that the years 2021 and 2023 were not especially good for the Golden Globes. The 2021 gala had to be broadcast telematically due to the covid pandemic, while the one that took place last year meant the return of the ceremony after a 2022 in which no network bought the rights to broadcast the event after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) did not have a single black member among its members.

Months later, it was discovered that the Netflix fiction production company "Emily in Paris" had invited awards voters to a impressive trip to the capital of France which included a stay at a five-star hotel that cost $1,400 a night and was paid for by Paramount Network.

This caused a controversy that, to this day, still haunts what is known as the "prelude to the Oscars" and for which the well-known awards had to change owners. In this way, in June 2023 it was announced that the awards were acquired by Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries.

New owners who, despite managing to attract part of the lost audience, still have a long way to go until the Golden Globes recover their lost glory and once again achieve figures like the 26.8 million viewers what was harvested in the year 2004, at the height of the golden age.