NBCUniversal announced Monday that it would not broadcast the 2022 Golden Globes, an abrupt blow to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that puts on the film and television awards show. The association relies on the money the network pays for the rights to broadcast the ceremony, and NBC’s move throws the future of the show into doubt.
The group of roughly 86 journalists came under intense scrutiny as investigations uncovered, among other things, its lack of diversity and its system of compensating members for their work on committees.
Last week the association approved changes that included increasing its membership by 50 percent over the next year and a half and hiring diversity consultants.
But NBCUniversal said in a statement: “We continue to believe that the H.F.P.A. is committed to meaningful reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the H.F.P.A. needs time to do it right. As such, NBC will not air the 2022 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 statement was the most significant in a series of positions taken by movie and television studios and networks over the past several days.
On Sunday, WarnerMedia, home to Warner Bros. and HBO, sent a letter to the president of the press association expressing disappointment at the limited nature of the reforms the H.F.P.A. had pledged to undertake. As a result, WarnerMedia executives said they would “continue to refrain from direct engagement with the H.F.P.A., including sanctioned press conferences and invitations to cover other industry events with talent” until changes are implemented. The New York Times obtained a copy of the WarnerMedia letter on Monday.
Late last week, the co-chief executive of Netflix sent his own missive to the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Leadership Committee criticizing the size and scope of reforms the group had proposed and saying his company would be “stopping any activities with your organization until more meaningful changes are made.” Amazon Studios also reportedly offered a statement saying it would await action from the group before moving forward.
A wide-ranging Los Angeles Times article, published on Feb. 21, found, among other things, that the group had no Black members. A New York Times article on Feb. 23 examined the group’s finances and found that in one recent year, the tax-exempt nonprofit was sitting on about $55 million in cash and paid more than $3 million in salaries and other compensation to members and staff.
During the Golden Globes telecast on Feb. 28, leaders of the group vowed to diversify their membership. On Thursday members voted to institute a set of reforms. But those steps were not enough to mollify studios like WarnerMedia.
“For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry,” the letter from WarnerMedia executives said. “We regret that as an industry, we have complained, but largely tolerated this behavior until now.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
