CBS to air 2024 Golden Globes, ending awards’ longtime partnership with NBC
After scandal, a year off the air and a one-year probationary run at NBC, the Golden Globes have an official new home: CBS.
The network announced Friday that it will televise the 81st edition of the awards on Jan. 7, with TV’s most consistent ratings powerhouse — the NFL — as a lead-in. The ceremony also will stream on Paramount+.
“Live entertainment and sports have been, and will always be, a hallmark of CBS, and the Globes adds an exciting new dimension to our first quarter schedule this year,” said George Cheeks, CBS’ president and chief executive, in a statement. “The January timing also provides the added benefit of yet another signature platform to promote the return of CBS’ new primetime schedule in February.”
The move comes at a time of transition for the Globes, which were rocked by a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation into the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., the small but powerful group of entertainment journalists that handed out the awards. The Times found ethical lapses within the group, long known for its idiosyncratic choice of honorees, and exposed that it then contained no Black members.
The HFPA has come under pressure for not having any Black members as well as allegations of ethical and financial lapses raised in a Times investigation.
In the public relations fallout, the 2022 Globes were not televised. Earlier this year, the awards returned to NBC, where they had aired since 1996, on a one-year contract. Ratings were down from pre-investigation years, with the telecast attracting an average of 6.25 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. (In 2019, the show drew nearly 19 million viewers.)
As part of the group’s reform efforts, it added journalists of color to the membership, expanded its ranks, banned gifts, instituted a hotline for reporting misconduct and quietly ejected a handful of members whom the HFPA accused of violating its standards.
In June, the California attorney general approved a deal for billionaire businessman and investor Todd Boehly to dissolve the HFPA and turn the Globes into a for-profit venture. Under the deal, the Golden Globes’ assets were acquired by Boehly’s private equity firm, Eldridge Industries, along with Dick Clark Productions, which has long produced the awards and is owned by Penske Media in partnership with Eldridge. Under the new for-profit structure, members are now employees of the organization — in essence, paid voters.
“We’re so proud to bring the Golden Globes to CBS to celebrate 81 years of awards show history,” said Jay Penske, chief executive, chairman and founder of Penske Media. “CBS has demonstrated an impressive 30-year commitment to the Grammys and been instrumental to their long-term success. In CBS, we found an ideal partner who understands the value of live entertainment programming and whose multiplatform distribution model is reflective of how global audiences choose to consume content today.”
Staff writers Josh Rottenberg and Stacy Perman contributed to this report.
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