Ray Richmond: The Golden Globes deserve the chance to mount a comeback

Ray Richmond
·7 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

By this time nearly every year, the Primetime Emmys are in the rearview mirror and Golden Globe and SAG film/TV season is in full swing. But this is clearly not every year. It appears that the Emmys won’t be budging off their rescheduled date of January 15, 2024 even if the SAG-AFTRA strike is settled soon. This means that they’ll be shoehorned in after the Golden Globes (January 7) and the Critics Choice Awards (January 14), with the SAG Awards set for February 24 (presuming SAG-AFTRA has long since been settled by then).

Of course, the Globes as of this writing also remain an awards ceremony without a broadcast or streaming partner after airing live on NBC and streamed on Peacock early this year, having been an NBC staple since 1996. That can and should still change before January. The submission website is about to open for Globe film and TV entries today, so there’s also that, with nominations coming December 11. (The Golden Globes are now co-owned by Dick Clark Productions – a part of Penske Media Corp. – and Eldridge Industries.)

More from GoldDerby

Beyond this, the logjam of awards ceremonies at the beginning of 2024 due to the twin WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes means several things. One is that we’re looking at having two Emmy Awards celebrations within eight months of one another. The second is that because we typically know the winners of the Emmys by this point, it impacts voters for the Globes, SAGs and Critics Choice TV Awards. Instead, the only influence is from the Emmy nominations in July, which feels for some reason like a lifetime ago.

SEE Emma Stone (‘Poor Things,’ ‘The Curse’) could be 3rd simultaneous winner of film and TV Golden Globes

But let’s get back to the Globes here. They’ve made several changes this year that bode well for their future, including liquidating the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association that as recently as 2021 had no Black members. The HFPA had long been viewed as slippery at best and, at worst, corrupt. It resulted in NBC cancelling the 2022 Globes telecast. But with the midyear sale of the Golden Globe assets and dissolution of the HFPA, there’s hope that the Globes can mount a comeback. And what’s also true is that despite all of the missteps, the Golden Globes are annually a marquee event and a valued early-in-the-year precursor to the Oscars.

I’m further encouraged by one particular move that the Globes made at the end of August, hiring the legendary Variety veteran Tim Gray as its new executive vice president to steer its rebound. He told Variety, “Major changes are already underway at the Golden Globes and I think people in Hollywood, and around the world, will be pleased when they see integrity restored while the sense of fun remains. I’m impressed with each person on the board – their experience, reputation, and their high standards.”

The Globes also scored something of a coup in landing the multi-Emmy Award-winning producing duo of Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment (WCE) to serve as executive producing showrunners for January’s Golden Globes, with Weiss also set to direct the live show. The duo also oversaw production on this year’s Academy Awards.

SEE ‘Ted Lasso’ is looking to pull off what only ‘Modern Family’ has accomplished at the Golden Globes

This past week, the Golden Globes also showed a little restructuring muscle by announcing two new categories recognizing Cinematic and Box Office Achievement in Motion Pictures, and Best Stand-Up Comedian on Television. (To make room, they eliminated the two TV supporting acting races that separated limited/movie and comedy/drama. There will now be just two television categories for Best TV Supporting Actor and Best TV Supporting Actress once again.)

In order to be eligible for the cinematic/box office achievement category, the film must achieve a box office receipt total/gross of $150 million, of which $100 million must come from the U.S. domestic box office, and/or obtain commensurate digital streaming viewership recognized by trusted industry sources.” “The new Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award is more than just rewarding the year’s top-earning and most viewed motion pictures,” said Gray in a statement. “These films have typically not been recognized among industry awards, but they should be.”

While the Globes were for years considered something of a joke, there is indeed new hope for them to become a revitalized brand if given the chance. We can look to the past at other challenged names that have turned things around and found new life, such as:

-Marvel: Twenty-five years ago, it was bankrupt and flailing to try to find a new direction. It didn’t seem to know what to do with its stable of comic book properties. While DC Comics made a mint turning Batman and Superman into iconic film franchises, Marvel countered with the epic 1986 flop “Howard the Duck.”  But new licensing deals brought Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men (and others) to major theatrical success, so much so that it started its own studio and really cashed in. Then Disney took it over for $4 billion in 2009 and the rest is history.

-Apple: The ultimate corporate turnaround and brand comeback story. It’s so huge now that it’s to forget that the tech behemoth teetered on the edge of insolvency a quarter century ago, losing $1 billion annually while the media was taking bets on which month it would die. Then Steve Jobs returned and everything changed, launching the iMac, the iPod, iTunes and the iPhone and raising its stock to stratospheric heights.

-Best Buy: Back in 2009, the electronics chain was teetering on the brink of closure, much like Circuit City before it – done in by poor sales and Amazon. Then it hired a new CEO who executed a smart turnaround plan that included price-matching, in-home services, and a bolstered supply chain. By 2021, its revenue was up year over year by 20% to nearly $12 billion.

-Delta: The airline’s name was mud back in 2005 when it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. It was stumbling due to higher fuel costs, competition from low-cost carriers and a steep decline in passenger traffic after 9/11. But it mounted an ambitious reorganization that merged with Northwest Airlines and put its focus back on customer service. It rebounded brilliantly.

There are at least a dozen other examples like the above. So you see, it can be done. You can buff your image back to brilliance if you play your cards right. Hopefully, a partner will step up to present the Golden Globes, because the public obviously needs to see the ceremony in a wider way than social media can provide. And additionally, the truth is that everyone deserves a second chance.

PREDICT the 2024 Golden Globe nominations through December 11

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.