NBC, which has aired the Golden Globes Awards ceremony since 1996, announced on Monday that it will not broadcast the show in 2022.
In a statement, the Comcast-owned network said that it decided to cancel 2022 Golden Globes to give the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) ― the governing body of the annual award ceremony ― time to implement some much-needed reform within the organization after it has repeatedly come under fire in recent months for its lack of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform,” read NBC’s statement. “However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right. As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023.”
NBC’s decision to cancel 2022 Golden Globes comes after WarnerMedia, Netflix, and Amazon had parted ways with the HFPA last week.
Joining the studio protest against the HFPA is Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise, who has reportedly sent all three of his Golden Globes trophies back to the HFPA.
The Golden Globes trophies that Cruise sent back to the HFPA headquarters are his Best Actor prize for 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July, Best Actor prize for 1996’s Jerry Maguire, and his Best Supporting Actor prize for 1999’s Magnolia. While it appears that Cruise is the first Golden Globe awardee to return his trophies to the HFPA as a form of protest, it wouldn’t be a surprise if others follow his lead.
The call for the HFPA to fully embrace diversity and inclusivity has begun years ago but it only peaked last winter amid the 2021 ceremony where hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler acknowledged the fact that HFPA has not had a single Black member for over twenty years.
In an effort to diversify its all-white membership body, the HFPA appeared to support a reform plan that includes a search for new members. The action items of the reform plan, however, were called “window-dressing platitudes” by Tina Tchen, president of the advocacy organization Time’s Up.
“The window-dressing platitudes adopted yesterday are neither the transformation that was promised nor what our creative community deserves,” read a portion of Tchen’s statement that was released last Friday after her meeting with Hollywood public relations firms and civil rights advocacy group Color of Change. “Any organization or sponsors that set themselves up to pass judgment on our vibrant community of creators and talent must do better.”