Globes Come Full Circle
Apparently, the Hollywood Foreign Press thinks it's never too soonor too late, we're guessingfor the A-list elite to engage in a little televised self-congratulation.
Still smarting from this year's strike-stricken ceremony, the accented media corps has announced that next year's Golden Globes will not only be taking place, but will be taking place earlier than any other show in the event's 66-year history: Jan. 11, 2009.
Nominations will be announced on Dec. 11.
The Globes' calendar jump is in line with what's shaping up to be a caffeinated awards season, coming just one day before the Academy Award nomination polls are set to close.
Next year's Oscar contenders will be announced Jan. 22 and the ceremony will be held Feb. 22, the shortest period ever between nominations and awards.
No Lost? No Office? No Betty? No Heroes? Have the Globes Gone Crazy?
Either I didn't slam enough espresso this morning for my very early morning call and was nodding off while the Golden Globe nominations were announced, or the following should-be shoo-ins were completely left out of the running this year:
• Lost
• Heroes
• Ugly Betty
• Desperate Housewives
• And even…the freaking Office!
Say it with me now: Whaaaaat?!
And what's more, save for acting nods to America Ferrera and Steve Carell, all the actors and actresses from these shows were completely shut out, too. (Get all the deets and the full list of noms in our news stories.)
So, if all of these fan-favorite heavyweights were left out in the cold, who actually managed to make it in?
Turns out, the normally mainstream-minded Hollywood Foreign Press decided to shift its attention to cable this time around, giving multiple nods to such stellar shows as Showtime's The Tudors, FX's Damages, AMC's Mad Men, Showtime's Californication and HBO's Extras.
If you ask me, this surprising cable sweep offers up a pretty poignant commentary on the current state of television and, specifically, the quality (or lack thereof) of freshman network series.
See, Globes voters are notorious for being all about hot new shows—preferably big-buzz and big-audience (read: network) new shows. But this season, the only network newbies voters deemed worthy of attention were Pushing Daisies (God bless that genius show and its three nods for Best Comedy Series and Best Actor and Actress Lee Pace and Anna Friel), Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?) and Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money).
Save for a possible nod for something or someone related to Private Practice (and really…meh), there simply aren't any first-season comedies or dramas that jump to mind as having been royally snubbed. Yes, I love Gossip Girl and Chuck as much as the next guy, but they just aren't the type of shows that normally get taken seriously by awards voters.
Perhaps it's time for the networks to up their A game and get more competitive with cable. And maybe give show runners and writers more creative control, like they have over on the now-lauded cable nets, who appear to be kicking their keisters.
Just a thought.
Now please take a minute to take our poll on this morning's nominations, and don't forget to sound off in our Comments section!
Here are the Golden Globe TV winners
Tonight, in a lavish press conference, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the winners of the 2008 Golden Globes. Here are the winners in the major TV categories:
Best TV series, comedy: Extras, HBO
Best TV series, Drama: Mad Men, AMC
Best actor, TV series, comedy: David Duchovny, Californication
Best actress, TV series, comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Best actress, miniseries or motion picture made for TV: Queen Latifah, Life Support
Best actor, miniseries or motion picture made for TV: Jim Broadbent, Longford
Best actor, TV series drama: Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Best actress, TV series drama: Glenn Close, Damages
Best supporting actress, TV series/movie/miniseries: Samantha Morton, Longford
Best supporting actor, TV series/movie/miniseries: Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Best mini-series, TV: Longford
Good-bye to the Golden Globes gala
Well, we all knew it was going to happen — we were just waiting for the proverbial foot covering to plummet: the Golden Globes award ceremony has been canceled. No red carpet interviews, no pithy conversations between television and movie stars, no close-ups of actors or actresses laughing at jokes that really aren’t that funny but seem totally hilarious after a few appletinis.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, along with NBC decided to scrap the ceremony after a boycott threat from representatives of the Screen Actors Guild. Rather than have an empty auditorium, all parties agreed to adopt another approach to the ceremony — a extremely less glamorous one hour news conference where the award recipients will be named (to be aired at the same time the original show was to be broadcast).
People close to the awards show say the HFPA will forgo the typical network payment for the news conference (somewhere around $5 million). NBC will have exclusive electronic rights for the press conference and will be able to sell advertising for it. Seems like a win for NBC, in my opinion.