Golden Globes: NBC says it will not air award show amid outcry, Tom Cruise returns his 3 Globes

Amid rising strain on the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation from studios, stars and enormous swaths of the movie trade, NBC stated Monday that won't air the Golden Globes in 2023, placing unsure the viability of considered one of Hollywood’s oldest and most-watched award reveals.

Criticism of the HFPA, which places on the Globes and has been denounced for an absence of variety and for moral impropriates, reached such a pitch Monday that Tom Cruise returned his three Globes to the press affiliation’s headquarters, in keeping with an individual who was granted anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly in regards to the choice.

In an announcement, NBC stated it believes the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation — which is dealing with attainable boycotts over the inclusiveness of its membership from Netflix, Warner Bros. and lots of Hollywood actors — is dedicated to reform. However change can’t come shortly sufficient for subsequent yr’s Globes.

“However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right,” the community stated. “As such, NBC will not air the 2023 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 Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation, lengthy a topic of ridicule from even its personal telecast hosts, has come underneath fireplace following an investigative report in February by The Los Angeles Instances that recounted the group’s questionable document on variety — together with, presently, no Black members amongst its roughly 90 voting members.

The press affiliation has pledged to totally reform, and final week authorised a plan to, amongst different issues, variety its membership. However that hasn’t stopped a number of studios from threatening to tug out of the Globes.

Final week, Netflix and Amazon Studios each stated they'd lower ties with the HFPA if it didn’t swiftly enact extra drastic modifications.

“We don’t believe these proposed new policies — particularly around the size and speed of membership growth — will tackle the HFPA’s systemic diversity and inclusion challenges, or the lack of clear standards for how your members should operate,” Netflix co-chief government Ted Sarandos wrote in a letter to the group.

In a letter despatched Sunday and shared with reporters Monday, WarnerMedia stated it could stop holding screenings and different occasions for the HFPA till it made extra substantial modifications.

“For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry,” WarnerMedia executives stated in a letter. “We regret that as an industry, we have complained, but largely tolerated this behavior until now.”

The outcry towards the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation has gathered drive over the past six weeks, as a movie trade the place racial and gender inequity lengthy went unchecked has grown newly illiberal of the methods of the group, made up of largely little-known journalists who revenue significantly from the annual telecast.

More and more, Hollywood has deserted the HFPA. A gaggle of 100 leisure publicity corporations has stated they'd urge their purchasers to skip HFPA capabilities. Mark Ruffalo, a winner this yr, lately stated he “cannot feel proud or happy about being a recipient of this award” any longer. Scarlett Johansson stated HFPA press conferences for her “meant facing sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment.”

The Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation didn’t deal with the 2023 telecast in responding to NBC’s choice, however board members of the group laid out its schedule of reforms — finally resulting in a revamped membership and board by early August, in addition to quite a few different coverage modifications.

“Regardless of the next air date of the Golden Globes, implementing transformational changes as quickly – and as thoughtfully – as possible remains the top priority for our organization,” the group stated in an announcement. “We invite our partners in the industry to the table to work with us on the systemic reform that is long overdue, both in our organization as well as within the industry at large.”

Final week, the press affiliation ratified plans so as to add a minimum of 20 new members this yr “with a specific focus on recruiting Black members” and with a aim of accelerating membership 50% over the subsequent 18 months.

For some, that timeline wasn’t aggressive sufficient. Within the subsequent few months, a number of potential awards contending movies are set to premiere at movie festivals and elsewhere. Tina Tchen, president and chief government of Time’s Up, known as the HFPA’s pledges “window-dressing platitudes.”

“These measures ensure that the current membership of the HFPA will remain in the majority and that the next Golden Globe Awards will be decided with the same fundamental problems that have existed for years,” stated Tchen.

The Globes, produced by dick clark productions, have suffered rankings drops in recent times however nonetheless rank among the many most-watched award reveals — often third to the Oscars and the Grammys. The 78th Golden Globes, held Feb. 28, attracted 6.9 million viewers, a 63% drop from the 2020 telecast, watched by 18.4 million.