Golden Globes Return — Here's How New Ownership Changed Things

The Golden Globe Awards, which will return to network television on Jan. 10, 2023, has faced a lot of controversy and change over the years. From the initial awards ceremony in 1944 to this year, the purpose of recognizing the best in film and TV has remained, but leadership has shifted. Who owns the Golden Globes in 2023?

The Golden Globes are awards presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). This has long been the tradition behind the awards, but the HFPA has faced scrutiny in recent years, with many actors boycotting the ceremonies or returning their statues. This year's return comes with changes that are hoped to better fit the times, CNN reports.

Although generally considered the second most important award for someone in the television or film industry, the Golden Globes Awards are still prestigious to some. They're awards given by the HFPA in a televised formal event at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The Emmys are the top television award, and the Academy Awards, or Oscars, are the top award for film. The Golden Globes come in second in importance to those awards ceremonies.

Billionaire Todd Boehly is a private equity firm chairman. Eldridge Industries became the parent company, or owner, of Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Golden Globe Awards. As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2022, Boehly is a co-owner of the Dodgers and recently bought the Premier League soccer club Chelsea FC for nearly $5 billion.

Before the ownership change, the HFPA was a nonprofit group of foreign entertainment journalists who voted on the Golden Globe nominees and winners. Now, the 96 members of the HFPA are paid employees of a for-profit organization.

The Golden Globes Association members will earn $75,000 per year for their work of screening films and TV shows, voting on nominees and winners, and writing content for the organization. The organization will no longer be tax-exempt. A group of 103 non-member voters won't be paid but are expected to add diversity and global reach.

The ethical behavior of some members of the HFPA has been questioned, as well as the organization's diversity. According to the Times, some members had received paid journalism assignments due to their status with the Globes association, among other financial gifts.

The HFPA has been accused of lacking diversity and snubbing people of color in nominations. In 2022, NBC canceled its airing of the ceremony due to these ethical issues. The network urged the HFPA to reform, saying it planned to broadcast the awards in 2023 if improvements were made.

Here are the chief changes the HFPA has made:

• banned gifts to members
• adding a hotline for reporting misconduct
• creating a new code of conduct and bylaws
• hired its first chief diversity officer
• added 21 new members, six of them being Black

The HFPA says it's now made up of 52 percent female voters and is "51.5 percent racially and ethnically diverse."

Not everyone is thrilled with the changes, as some say paying members makes the Golden Globes even less legitimate and trustworthy. Other awards, like the Heisman, are voted on by journalists who aren't paid for their participation in the vote.

The Golden Globes will be televised on NBC on Jan. 10, 2023 at 8 p.m. EST. Viewers can also stream the show on Peacock. Actor nominees this year include Elizabeth Debicki, Austin Butler, Michelle Williams, Adam Driver, and many more.

Some of the films nominated for Golden Globes include:

• Avatar: The Way Of Water
• Elvis
• The Fabelmans
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
• Top Gun: Maverick