Leading up to the Golden Globes, the show's organizers essentially hung a "Under new management" sign from its front door. Whether the average viewer – and some of the night's winners – were aware or not is another story.
In his analysis of the night, CNN's Brian Lowry breaks down the old and new aspects of the revamped Globes. He writes:
Beyond the practical aspect of the Golden Globes, which advanced “Oppenheimer” (especially) and “Poor Things” in their Oscar campaigns and began the “Succession” farewell tour, Sunday’s televised ceremony reinforced the notion that Hollywood has a hard time quitting those who lavish honors upon it.
Although this marked the 81st edition of the Globes, comparisons to previous ceremonies should come with an asterisk. That’s because of sweeping changes the Globes have undergone as an organization, phasing out the scandal-plagued Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. (HFPA) and establishing a revised and expanded voting group under new management, Dick Clark Productions.
Granted, not everyone got the memo, with three of the winners thanking the HFPA, while Robert Downey Jr. made the most overt reference to the scandal from the recipients, thanking the Globes for cleaning up its act.
That said, after staying away from the ceremony, which briefly left TV and shifted this year from NBC to CBS, Hollywood again turned out in force, with top talent filling the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The tone, however, felt somewhat subdued, despite a clear desire to buttress the Globes’ reputation as more of a party than stuffier, higher-stakes Academy Awards, with the voiceover announcer joking, “Censors will be standing by.”
Read more of his takeaways here.
