After years as a Hollywood laughingstock, the HFPA just might get the last laugh.
Recent conflicting reports claimed the group’s Golden Globes “will be back on NBC in 2023″ that it’s “not a done deal” yet or that the telecast is just “hanging by a thread.” In this writing, no one really knows, but you could know by the time you read this.
Despite earlier media coverage that the HFPA is undiversified and may have been involved in past financial improprieties, the key issue seems to be whether the Hollywood publicists, who initiated 2021’s HFPA boycott, are now prepared to work with the Globes.
The buzz has been that some of them will hold their noses and do so because it suits their needs as Oscar campaigners. Having the Globes back on NBC in January would be great timing to boost their clients’ visibility to Academy voters.
No other awards show emerged as a successor to the sidelined Globes. The Critics Choice Awards looked like it might, but a 2021 COVID surge delayed the event, aired on The CW & TBS, from 1/9 to 3/13 and there was no snapping back from that.
Those publicists ready to embrace the HFPA again are realists willing to do whatever it takes to win Oscar gold. Whether their A-List clients feel the same way, remains to be seen.