How did we get here? I’ll give you a condensed version.

Who are the Hollywood Foreign Press Association? The HFPA was an organization founded in 1943 by Los Angeles-based foreign journalist who wanted a more organized process for distributing movie news in non-US markets. It would become an extremely exclusive club that nobody could get a membership to. Throughout those early years, the Golden Globe Awards formed and evolved into what we know today.

In 2018, Brendan Fraser came forward with sexual assault allegations against a high ranking member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Now, this wasn’t what the main scandal was, but it was certainly its catalyst, as the public eye was now closely watching the organization.

In 2021, the HFPA faced major criticism at the lack of black representation within the organization. They hadn’t had a new black member since the organizations former president, Meher Tatna, in 2002. It was noted that a contributing factor to this lack of diversity was the secrecy and exclusivity of the organization because in order to gain membership, a person had to be sponsored by two existing members. It’s not hard to see how this leads to the absence of representation of marginalized groups.

In March of 2021, the HFPA hired a new Strategic Diversity Officer and began working with the law firm Ropes & Gray to “support the continued development of a confidential reporting system for investigating alleged violations of our ethical standards and code of conduct”. A month later, the then president of the organization, Philip Berk, was removed from his position after sending out an email to fellow HFPA members calling the Black Lives Matter Movement a “racist hate movement”.

In May of 2021, the HFPA set forth a plan to reform their organization, from an increase in members, adding new professional administrative positions (like CEO, CFO, and the like), to an oversight board for “critical organizational reform” as well as other accountability improvements. However, the plan was very loose in regard to time frame which frustrated a number of powers that be in the industry as they weren’t just willing to “take their word for it” that the organization would change. There was no guarantee that the organization would have implemented these reforms before the next awards cycle.

Once the networks began criticizing and boycotting the HFPA, that’s when they began to take it seriously. The same day that Warner Media stated they were joining the boycott, longtime awards show broadcaster NBC decided not to air the 79th Golden Globes. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided to hold the 79th Golden Globes in 2022 in a private setting, with an audience of HFPA beneficiary’s, where they focused on talking about the organization’s philanthropic efforts, with awards sprinkled throughout.

In July of 2022, the HFPA was to be “reconstructed” further. Then interim CEO, Todd Boehly, absorbed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and established a for-profit entity via his holding company, Eldridge Industries. Eldridge Industries already owned Dick Clark Productions, the company that produced the awards show annually.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association was completely dismantled on June 12, 2023.

Now that you’ve been brought up to speed on how we got here, we have to discuss the last couple years of the awards show itself to understand what the hell we all saw and heard for the 81st Golden Globes.

Prior to 2021, the Golden Globes broadcast ratings had been dropping steadily every year. Even when NBC tried to use an NFL broadcast as a lead-in for the awards show, the ratings still managed to drop lower than they had been in 2018, having already dropped 11% from 2017. The audience struggle was already there, even before the scandals broke.

In 2022, the Golden Globes were not aired on any network. They were held in private and only released the winners of the awards to the public via their social media platforms. In 2023, the 80th Golden Globes aired on television, but you’d be hard pressed to remember it. There wasn’t too much of an advertising push around the broadcast. I would consider it a “soft launch”. Nothing really of note happened. Nothing really memorable.

Cut to the 81st Golden Globes. The press around the struggle the awards show was having booking and keeping a host was substantial. Whether intentional or not, there was much more advertising around the broadcast this year. So, the pressure was on. This was the hard relaunch of the Golden Globes.

Comedian Jo Koy was hired by the production ten days before it was due to air. Now, maybe those that hired him thought he was better known than he actually was. Honestly, I don’t think I even realized he wasn’t as well known. The Golden Globes wasn’t going to be Koy’s usual audience, and I think that’s part of what went wrong. Jo Koy made it a point to mention, when the audience began to turn on him, that he had only “gotten the gig” ten days prior. His reasoning being that ten days was not long enough to write the opening monologue and jokes for the ceremony. The harsh reality of it is, Saturday Night Live has always been written in less than a week. So, is “I only got the job ten days ago” really an excuse? Or  was it merely a defense mechanism because Koy did not know how to handle the crowd reactions?

The content of Koy’s monologue is what quickly turned the crowd composed of Hollywood elite against him. Two of the biggest films of the year were Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Of course they would be two of the largest talking points. What we heard was a sexist monologue that did two things: it proved that the film Barbie and its message is much needed. It also showed, unfortunately, that nothing changes. The movie and its message falls on deaf ears in the grand scheme of Hollywood. Because, all the blame for the joke doesn’t get put on Jo Koy. The joke, the entire monologue, would have had to have been approved by at least one, if not several other people. And not a soul said a thing.

Even the jokes that weren’t sexist fell absolutely flat. When the joke about The Crown didn’t work, it was a moment to pivot, not to deflect. A true comedian could have pivoted, gotten the audience back on their side.  Jo Koy was completely mishired. When hosting an awards show, you do not tell jokes about buttholes and pulling out. Full stop. This wasn’t one of his comedy specials. This was a gig that required a little more elegance. And, instead, they got a defensive, immature “comedian”.

The fact that this was only the Golden Globes’ second time on air since 2021 and it was this much of a disaster is very telling. With the HFPA having been disbanded, maybe it’s time that the Golden Globes go with it. Maybe it’s time for something new. Because I don’t think even Dick Clark Productions can save this sinking ship.