Amid Strike Fears, Golden Globes Propose Reduced Coverage
January 7, 2008

In the wake of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have proposed scaling back their coverage of Sunday's Golden Globe awards from a three-hour ceremony and dinner to a one-hour press conference announcing the winners.

Fearful of WGA picketing, and a recent statement by the Screen Actors Guild that none of the 70+ acting nominees would attend the ceremony, the Globes made a mad scramble on Monday to come up with a contingency plan that would allow some kind of network television coverage (and thus save millions of dollars in advertisting revenue) without the fear of picketing or no-shows from high-profile celebrities.

To insure that the show would go on in some way, NBC, Dick Clark Productions (which produces the Golden Globes show) and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have decided to cancel the traditional dinner and ceremony, and instead broadcast a press conference via NBC News (which is not affected by the WGA strike) to announce the winners, and bracket this one-hour special with a number of different news programs centering on the Globes.

At press time, while the WGA had agreed to withhold its picketing from the press conference, it had not given an official go-ahead for the additional coverage. Negotiations were said to be ongoing regarding the use of clips and the Globes party coverage.

Bulletin