Our Take
After a year-long hiatus due to ethical allegations and lack of diversity, The Golden Globe Awards returned live on NBC and Peacock. This year’s host, Jerrod Charmichael, was the first black host in 79 years and was not afraid to address the elephant in the room throughout the night. Carmicheal began his opening monologue with, “I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m here because I’m Black.” Carmichael went on to explain he decided to host the Globes not because of the diversity efforts of the HFPA, but because of the group of amazingly talented and diverse people in the room. He stated, “I’m here truly, because of all of you…”
Ben Takeaways
Lack of Brand moments
Maybe it’s the lack of brands wanting to be involved with an award show that’s had some controversy lately. Maybe the HFPA is picky about its brand choices because the organization spans so many countries. Or maybe it’s the fact that brand moments during award shows have been slightly overdone lately. Either way, this year’s Golden Globes ceremony was lacking any sort of brand involvement. Moet champagne was flowing amongst the tables, and there was a brief shoutout to Progressive about ten minutes into the show. This was only mentioned once followed by a commercial starring everyone’s favorite insurance guru, Flo. But besides that brands were noticeably missing from the show. It’ll be interesting to see if this non-branded trend carries over into next year, or if this was just a simple consequence of the controversy. At least BENlabs had placements in some of the winning titles! White Lotus. Yellowstone. Ozark. Shout out to us (especially our PPO Team) who facilitated some great brand moments!
STANDOUT MOMENT #1
Perhaps it was Michelle Yeoh’s acceptance speech for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy that took the cake. Yeoh spoke beautifully about her career and the blessing that was Everything Everywhere All At Once, but wasn’t afraid to get feisty as music started to play her off. She yelled at the piano player, “Shut up, please! I can beat you up, okay?” and gracefully went on to finish her thank yous.
DIVERSITY WINS
The night started off strong in terms of diverse wins. As we mentioned, Jerrod Carmicheal was not only the first black host in GG history, he was the first black gay man to host pretty much any major awards show. The baton was then passed to Ke Huy Quan, winning his first award after a thirty-year gap from his acting career for the explosive Everything Everywhere All At Once. A win for Asian actors everywhere. Our Queen on and off screen, Angela Bassett was next. Winning her second Golden Globe, nearly 30 years after her first for portraying Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It. She is also the first actor to win a major award for a Marvel Cinematic Universe role. Talk about breaking barriers! Zendaya, Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, composer MM Keeravani, and Guillermo del Toro all continued the trend of representation in Hollywood The iconic awards (Carol Burnett and Cecil B deMille) were also taken home respectively by Eddie Murphy and Ryan Murphy: a Black man and a gay man.
STANDOUT MOMENT #2
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after Ke Huy Quen won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. This was Quan’s first big gig since his 1984 debut as a child star in Indiana Jones. Quan stated, “for so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer — that no matter what I did, I would never surpass what I did as a kid. Thankfully, more than 30 years later, two guys thought of me. They remembered that kid. And they gave me an opportunity to try again.”
Special thanks to Taylor Evans and Annabelle Sharenow for their contribution to The Buzz – 2023 Golden Globes.
