NBC on Monday announced in a statement that it will not air the Golden Globes in 2022. This comes amid several criticisms on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organisation that curates the awards, for lack of racial diversity among its voting members.
“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right,” the company said in a statement. “As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organisation executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023,” NBC said.
On Sunday, Netflix and Amazon Studios had announced that they would refrain from working with the HFPA until it came up with “more meaningful changes”. The announcement came after the HFPA announced a “reform plan” last week that aims at increasing its membership by 50% in the next 18 months by identifying and adding eligible people of colour, and conducting an election for the same. The outcome was that 75 members voted for the plan, while three voted against it.
Following a similar path, Hollywood actor Tom Cruise chose to return the three Golden Globe trophies he won for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia, according to Deadline.
Last week, Avengers co-stars Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo also criticised the HFPA.
“As an actor promoting a film, one is expected to participate in awards season by attending press conferences as well as awards shows. In the past, this has often meant facing sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment. It is the exact reason why I, for many years, refused to participate in their conferences. The HFPA is an organisation that was legitimised by the likes of Harvey Weinstein to amass momentum for Academy recognition, and the industry followed suit. Unless there is necessary fundamental reform within the organisation, I believe it is time that we take a step back from the HFPA and focus on the importance and strength of unity within our unions and the industry as a whole,” Johansson said in a statement according to Deadline.
Ruffalo, in a social media post, said that the HFPA’s reforms were “discouraging”.
The Globes came under fire by the Time’s Up organisation in February when it called out on the HFPA for its lack of diversity and inclusion after the former revealed that the latter comprises an all-white 87-member committee. Even in nominations, only six Black artists were nominated. Consequently, as a part of its “transformational changes”, the HFPA announced hiring two third-party advisors, a professor at the University of Southern California, and a firm as an independent counsel.
