Lights, Camera, Accountability

In the Spotlight: Earlier this week, awards season kicked off with the Golden Globes, which honors the best in TV and film. But the show couldn’t go on without addressing its controversial past.

The Story

During the 80th Golden Globes, host and comedian Jerrod Carmichael wasted no time reminding everyone why the show didn’t air last year. In his opening monologue, Carmichael called out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) — the group behind the Globes — for not having “a single Black member until George Floyd died.” Reminder: That was one of many bombshells (see: reports of ethical and financial lapses) revealed in a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation. Carmichael also said he’d been asked to be the “Black face of an embattled white organization.” His comments followed more than a year of reforms by the HFPA (think: overhauling membership eligibility, banning gifts), which boosted its Black membership to 10% and helped the show get back on air. At least, for this year. But while some progress was made, not everyone’s sold.

Tell me.

On the surface, the awards show appeared to follow through on its commitment to diversity — by addressing its pattern of handing out awards to mostly white winners. Instead, Ke Huy Quan from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” became the second actor of Asian descent to win the Golden Globe for best supporting actor. And other actors of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ community were honored. But many are still skeptical about whether they can trust the Globes — and the entertainment industry, generally — to make lasting change. Meanwhile, some dismissed the program as “woke” and “boring.” And then there are all of those who didn’t tune in: Tuesday’s viewership was just 6.3 million people — the lowest in more than a decade. No surprise, that’s renewing conversations over the relevance of both the Globes and awards shows in general.