Golden Globes Grows 50% in Viewers from Last Year’s All-Time Low

Tony Maglio
·3 min read
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The Golden Globes on CBS and Paramount+ drew an average 9.4 million total viewers on Sunday, up 50 percent from last year’s NBC telecast (6.3 million viewers). It is the show’s largest viewership since the COVID-19 pandemic, though it is also about half its pre-COVID haul (18 million viewers in January 2020).

Though the Globes were Sunday’s top primetime entertainment program, the Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins NFL game on NBC was the night’s top telecast overall. NBC not re-upping its longtime Golden Globes deal created a rare win-win for the top two broadcast networks.

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The 81st annual Golden Globe Awards, hosted by comedian Jo Koy, aired live on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+. Both platforms are captured in the 9.4-million number, which also includes Nielsen’s out-of-home viewing.

The show’s move from NBC to CBS — and from Monday night back to Sunday Night — was a hit, even if this was not a particularly good Golden Globes. IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers gave the show a “D” grade, and called Koy’s opening monologue “nothing short of a catastrophe.” It sure was — and not just because the jokes were lame.

CBS is typically the most-watched network in America, attracting the oldest median-age audience on broadcast television. Fortunately, there are a lot of baby boomers to pull from. Last night’s success is also a testament to having films (and yes, TV shows) that the general public cares about. Shoutout here to “Barbie,” which entered Sunday with the most nominations (nine), though it won just two awards.

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” was the big winner last night, taking home five Golden Globes — including Best Motion Picture, Drama — from its eight nominations. (Full list of Sunday’s winners here.) The final season of HBO’s “Succession” won four Golden Globe statuettes, leading TV.

Last year’s Globes, the final on longstanding network partner NBC, suffered the smallest audience since at least 1996, when digital records replaced paper copies. (It’s not easy to pull out those paper records.) That remains the record low.

The ’23 Golden Globes, hosted by Jerrod Carmichael, took place on a Monday to avoid the newly expanded NFL Regular Season schedule. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” is the top weekly show in America.

There was no Golden Globes telecast in 2022, though the now-defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association issued awards anyway. The show was put in a TV timeout after it was revealed the HFPA lacked diversity among its voting members.

Sunday’s numbers remain way down from the golden days of the Golden Globes. The last pre-COVID, pre-scandal Golden Globes in January 2020 drew 18 million total viewers. The few years since have been dominated by on-demand streaming, no longer live (and linear) TV tune-in.

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