• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 6, 2025

Award shows are trapped in those weak spots of trying to entertain while offering honors to those of us who entertain.

This comes as one report wonders whether we should care about who was going to win at the Golden Globes Awards held over this past weekend.

In part this missive refers to a massive public problem with these awards. In 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported there was a massive lack of diversity at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) -- the nonprofit group that ran the Globes. None of the 87 members were black.

After being off the air in 2022 -- due to many studios, networks, stars and publicists saying they would boycott the scheduled 2022 ceremony -- it came back in 2023.

Last year its broadcast on CBS was characterized as a "near total disaster" -- mostly because journeyman comedian Jo Koy, as a last-minute host, offered up flat material.

For a long time, this has been an ongoing issue for many awards shows; finding the right balance between comedy and maybe a reflective, serious presentation of material around delivering some hardware for art and craft. This includes those honorary and remembrance content as well, obviously.

For TV viewers, some of that awards stuff comes in wanting to see their favorite performers perhaps speak some words -- scripted, improvised or otherwise -- out of familiar character speak.

Movie studios, TV networks/streamers, music acts and labels all hope high-profile prime-time award efforts act as decent "earned media" in a promotional way for their intellectual property. Talent agents hope this works as well for their clients.

Given the explosion of new streaming services -- which for the near term will work in tandem with airing awards shows with their linear TV networks -- all this would seem to keep alive “live” TV content on traditional TV channels.

The immediacy of real-time awards -- as well as live sports content, and live conclusions of unscripted reality TV shows -- will continue to be of value for viewers and advertisers.

Will this change at all in future years where award shows like Academy Awards or The Grammys may be aired exclusively on a streaming platform -- a Disney+, Max, Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, or other?

Like the NFL moving some of content exclusive to a streamer, the ground underneath television keeps shifting.

For award shows we can only hope for better jokes and maybe even an impromptu, un-scripted and perhaps “comical” slaps on the face are on the way.

Then entertainment award shows about entertainment will always be a thing.