(Los Angeles) The audience for the Golden Globes rebounded this year with 9.4 million viewers, an encouraging performance for a ceremony which had lost its luster, weakened in recent years by accusations of racism and corruption towards its jury .
The preliminary figures revealed Monday by CBS represent a clear improvement, after the historic low of 6.3 million viewers in 2023.
Long seen as an essential springboard to the Oscars and Hollywood’s favorite night, the Golden Globes have suffered an existential crisis in recent years.
The ceremony was boycotted and deprived of television broadcast in 2022, because of the scandals surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA): the Los Angeles Times revealed in 2021 that it had no black members and that its members accepted lavish gifts from the studios.
This organization, which created the Golden Globes, has now been dissolved and the awards have been bought by private investors.
After profound reforms and the inclusion of many voters from around the world, the new owners promised a new start.
Sunday’s ceremony, which largely celebrated the Oppenheimer film with five awards but shunned Barbie, the other phenomenon of last year, seemed to demonstrate that Hollywood was ready to move on.
Many distinguished guests attended, including Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Oprah Winfrey.
The only notable absentee, comedian Ricky Gervais, snubbed the prize for best stand-up show, awarded during an event that he himself presented several times.
The Golden Globes managed to bounce back despite the fiasco of his successor, Jo Koy, who was charged with the role of master of ceremonies at the last minute this year.
His jokes considered heavy on Barbie’s chest or Bradley Cooper’s nasal prosthesis in Maestro – compared to a penis – largely fell flat, in a silent room.
The comedian’s opening speech was thus summed up in a “sequence of mortifying moments”, tackled the New York Times.
However, the Globes audience remains well below its pre-pandemic levels. In 2020, more than 18 million viewers watched the show.
Audiences at major awards ceremonies have been at half mast for several years, in particular because young people spend more time on social networks or streaming platforms than in front of the television.
