Golden Globes cancels traditional show

Come this weekend, Hollywood won't be busting out its Golden Globes for all the world to ogle.
Instead, after last-ditch talks with the striking writers union fell through, NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association scuttled the glittery Globes ceremony and replaced it with a stripped-down news special.

The HFPA, responsible for bestowing the awards, now simply plans on holding a press conference to announce the 25 winners for the film and TV honors on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton, which will be aired as an hourlong NBC News report.

"We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007’s outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television,” Jorge Camara, HFPA president, said in a statement.

"We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year's Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled."

In an attempt to salvage the star power, NBC had tried to put together bookend specials focusing on nominees, past winners and the night's A-list parties, sources confirmed to E! Online. But the Writers Guild of America balked.

Before the winners were unveiled at 9 p.m., the network had wanted to air a one-hour Dateline special featuring clips and interviews with nominees (the program had initially been set to run Saturday), as well as an hourlong retrospective of the Golden Globes from Dick Clark Productions, the telecast's longtime producer.

The press conference would have been followed by a one-hour Access Hollywood-style show with dispatches from various parties, presumably to catch the winners' reactions.
By retooling the Globes as a bare-bones news broadcast, organizers were hoping to still be able to draw out stars who otherwise were gearing up to boycott the ceremony.

On Friday, the Screen Actors Guild and a contingent of Hollywood's top PR firm issued separate announcements saying none of the 72 nominated actors was willing to cross a picket line out of solidarity to the striking Writers Guild of America. NBC and the HFPA were hoping a technicality would have made at least some nominees reconsider. The network's news division isn't represented by the WGA—the reason why The Today Show stayed on air while The Tonight Show went black.

But the WGA refused to play along, vieweing the maneuver as an attempt to circumvent the ongoing stirke, and NBC backed off, sources say.

There was no immediate comment from either the Writers Guild or the Screen Actors Guild on the new Globes plan.

The WGA had previously said it would not picket the Globes should the HFPA decide to hold the ceremony without broadcasting it on TV or the Internet. But NBC reportedly didn't want to give up the ratings-grabbing ceremony, which usually ranks second only to the Oscars among all award shows, and deal with the resulting hole in its Sunday schedule and consequent loss of ad reveunue.

The Globes ceremony, which NBC pays between $5-6 million a year to televise, has been broadcast since 1980. The show has run on NBC since 1996. The HFPA has reportedly agreed to return this year's payment.

Another option floated over the weekend would have been to postpone the ceremony, à la the 2001 Emmys, until a settlement was reached.

But with no end in sight to the writers' strike, a potential actors' strike on the calendar and the network facing a short-term scheduling hit and revenue hit, NBC and the HFPA went with the scaled-down "press-conference" option, similar to what CBS has opted to do with Tuesday night's People's Choice Awards.

Earlier Monday, NBC Entertainment cochief Ben Silverman told E! News anchor Ryan Seacrest that the network was "obviously trying to find a solution to satisfy fans of these great movies and all the incredible stars who have worked so hard all year and got this incredible opportunity.
"Sadly, it feels like the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom. But NBC wants to try to keep that prom alive."

Dick Clark Productions, meanwhile, previously attempted to broker an interim agreement with the WGA similar to that inked by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, which allowed his productions back on air.Clark's company issued a statement before the non-telecast decision, saying it was "disappointed that the WGA has refused to bargain with us in good faith."
Never one to hold back, Silverman echoed the company's sentiments, saying, "It feels unfair to me that Dick Clark Productions is not being given the same consideration that other companies like Tom Cruise's United Artists [which completed a separate deal Monday] or David Letterman's Worldwide Pants are being given.

"That's what's really disturbing me, how inconsistent it all is. It seems very much being played in an intentional and not a professional way."

As for the rest of awards season, the WGA has granted waivers for the 14th Annual SAG Awards on Jan. 27 and the 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards Feb. 23.

But the WGA has also signaled it would not grant a waiver to the Academy Awards, which are scheduled to take place Feb. 24.