Golden Globes Reflect Changing Face of Television

Written by Jon Williams

If you watched the Golden Globe awards ceremony on Sunday night—or even if you just perused the list of winners on Monday morning—you may have noticed something a little odd on the television side. Despite garnering a fair number of nominations, the major over-the-air networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) did not take home a single award. Instead, the shows celebrated for their excellence were all from non-traditional, premium cable, or streaming services.

Non-network stations did quite well for themselves. In fact, the CW, jointly operated by CBS and Time Warner, was the closest thing to a major network to come away with the win. The channel, which is generally aimed at a young adult audience, earned its first major award nomination and win, with Gina Rodriguez taking home Best Actress in a TV Comedy for her portrayal of the title character on Jane the Virgin (which is not yet available on DVD/Blu-ray). Also winning awards were Downton Abbey (Best Supporting Actress Joanne Froggatt) and The Honorable Woman (Best Actress in a Miniseries Maggie Gyllenhaal); both were produced for British television and aired on this side of the pond via PBS and SundanceTV, respectively. Finally, FX’s television reboot of Fargo won two awards: Best Miniseries and Best Actor in a Miniseries Billy Bob Thornton.

The streaming services also won big on the night. Kevin Spacey, star of Netflix’s powerhouse political show House of Cards, won the Golden Globe for Best Drama Actor just ahead of the release of Season 3 on February 27. Following in Netflix’s footsteps of developing original programming, Amazon had a winner on its hands this year with Transparent (not yet available), which took two awards: Best TV Comedy and Best Actor Jeffrey Tambor. The show’s full first season was made available to users in September, and it was recently renewed for a second season that will be released later this year.

The premium cable outlets also came away with three awards. With fifteen nominations, it seemed like something of an upset for HBO to end the evening with just one win, but that’s the way it went down. Their award was for Matt Bomer’s Best Supporting Actor turn in The Normal Heart. Also in something of a surprise, the award for Best TV Drama went to Showtime’s The Affair (not yet available), which also featured the night’s Best Drama Actress, Ruth Wilson.

This shift in where the best shows call home is indicative of a shift in the way viewers watch television. Fading are the days of being in front of a television at a certain time on a certain day to catch the latest episode of a favorite show. More and more, it seems that viewers prefer the freedom of watching episodes at their leisure, or being able to watch multiple episodes at once, as soon as the season “starts,” and these non-network outlets are capitalizing on that. Along those lines, this column on the Huffington Post has an interesting (if non-scientific) note on most-recommended series for binge watching, including a breakdown along gender lines (which, apparently, do not diverge as much as you might expect).

The takeaway? It’s true: non-network shows are the hottest right now. In addition to this year’s crop of Golden Globe winners, make sure you’re stocking seasons of shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Orange Is the New Black, and The Wire for your patrons who just can’t get enough, as well as for those who don’t have access to those channels or services.

70th Annual Golden Globe Awards

Written by Kirk Baird

Even as Lincoln’s 12 Academy Award nominations made the Civil War drama the prohibitive favorite for the Feb. 24 Oscars, Sunday night’s 70th Annual Golden Globe presentation might have shaken things up.

The Iran hostage drama Argo took the Golden Globe for best motion picture as well a trophy for the film’s director, Ben Affleck, who was not nominated for an Oscar. Lincoln and director Steven Spielberg were Golden Globe nominees in both categories.

Lincoln’s Tony Kushner also lost in the best screenplay category to Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), Lincoln co-stars Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field lost the best supporting actor and actress categories, respectively, to Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), and Lincoln composer John Williams lost best original score to Life of Pi’s Mychael Danna.

Daniel Day-Lewis, as expected, won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama for his powerful and moving performance as Lincoln.

Overall, Lincoln was nominated for 7 Golden Globes but won only one.

While Spielberg’s film stumbled at the awards show, the lavish musical Les Miserables triumphed. In addition to Hathaway’s expected win, the adaptation of the stage musical based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 French historical novel won for best musical or comedy and best actor in a comedy or musical (Hugh Jackman).

Jessica Chastain won the best actress in a drama for Zero Dark Thirty. And Jennifer Lawrence won the best actress in a comedy or musical for Silver Linings Playbook.

Rounding out the film winners as voted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Brave won for best animated feature, Amour won best foreign language film, and Adele’s “Skyfall” won for best original song in a film.

For television, Showtime’s espionage drama Homeland was the big winner, winning best television series drama, best performance by an actress in a TV series drama (Claire Danes), and best performance by an actor in a TV series drama (Damian Lewis). HBO’s new series Girls took trophies for best television series comedy or musical, and best performance by an actress in a TV series comedy or musical (Lena Dunham), while Don Cheadle from Showtime’s House of Lies won best performance by an actor in a TV series comedy or musical.

Best miniseries or motion picture made for television went to HBO’s comedy-drama Game Change, about the 2008 GOP presidential campaign, and to the film’s star Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin for best performance by an actress in a miniseries or motion picture made for television, and to co-star Ed Harris as John McCain for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, miniseries or motion picture made for television.

Kevin Costner won the best performance by an actor in a miniseries or motion picture made for television Golden Globe for Hatfields & McCoys. And Maggie Smith won for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, miniseries or motion picture made for television for Downton Abbey: Season 2.

Hollywood Foreign Press Announces Golden Globe Nominees

The Golden Globe Awards are presented annually to recognize the year’s best films and television programs. The 2012 event officially got underway on December 15 when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced this year’s award nominees.

You can view the full list of nominees here. The Artist raked in six film nominations, while The Descendants and The Help came away with five. On the TV side, Downton Abbey and Mildred Pierce each led with four nominations, while Homeland pulled in three. It was a good haul for HBO and Showtime (26 nominations) and new shows (7 out of 10 best series nominations).

As always, though, the most interesting chatter revolves not around who got nominated, but who got left out. There weren’t too many surprises in the film categories. One interesting note is that Ryan Gosling was nominated for his performances in The Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid, Love, but not for Drive. The hilarious Melissa McCarthy, who just picked up a SAG Award nomination, didn’t make the best supporting actress category for her performance in Bridesmaids. However, her costar, Kristen Wiig, did receive a nomination.

The TV nominations saw a little more of the zaniness that is the hallmark of the Golden Globes. Brand new shows like American Horror Story, Boss, and New Girl garnered series nominations, while heavyweights like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead (a personal favorite of mine) did not. Previous actor/actress winners Jim Parsons, Chris Colfer, and Katey Sagal are all absent this year, although Parsons’ Big Bang Theory costar Johnny Galecki received a nomination instead.

So, who’s going to win? My crystal ball is a bit hazy, but here’s how I see the major categories shaking out:

Best Picture – Drama: The Descendents will probably win, but don’t count out The Help.

Best Actor – Drama: Tough call with all the heavyweights in this category; I’ll go with George Clooney in The Descendents.

Best Actress – Drama: The smart money is on Viola Davis in The Help.

Best Picture – Comedy/Musical: I’d be surprised if it’s anything other than The Artist.

Best Actor – Comedy/Musical: The Artist is going to have a big night; Jean Dujardin takes home this award.

Best Actress – Comedy/Musical: Michelle Williams, for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn.

Best TV Drama: Boardwalk Empire, which won last year, will be hard to beat. Nonetheless, I’m going with another HBO hit, Game of Thrones.

Best TV Comedy: Glee won last year, and Glee will win again this year.

Best Miniseries/TV Movie: PBS gets a win with Downton Abbey.

Of course, another intriguing question surrounding this year’s Golden Globes ceremony has nothing to do with the awards themselves: which celebrities will host Ricky Gervais skewer with his rapier wit? We’ll all find out when this year’s ceremony airs January 15, 2012, live on NBC.

SmartBrowse "2012 Golden Globe Nominations" at midwesttapes.com to shop the movies and TV shows that were nominated. Let us know what you think of the nominees and our predictions in the comments section below.

Speeches, Gleeks, and Globes: Golden Globe Nominees Announced

Ah, the three famous gifts of the season: frankincense, myrrh, and Golden Globes—er, gold.

The Christmas season traditionally brings the Golden Globe nominations with it, and this year’s Globe hopefuls were announced early Tuesday morning by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Unsurprisingly, The King’s Speech (seven nominations), The Social Network (six nominations), and The Fighter (six nominations) ruled the motion picture side of the ballot while Glee’s unfathomable popularity put it on top of the television side.

The Best Dramatic Motion Picture category, the closest thing to “top prize” for the Golden Globes, is a crowded field this year. Based on the amount of love that surfaced for Inception upon its arrival, I would have to consider it to be the favorite—but don’t count out any of the other candidates. The King’s Speech’s multiple nominations, Black Swan’s immense buzz, The Social Network’s timely subject matter, and The Fighter’s freshness in voters’ minds could all tip the scales one way or another.

While critics and bloggers alike expected these films to nab nominations, the Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture category was far more unpredictable and caused some significant head scratching.

It’s not the happenstance of a children’s film (Alice in Wonderland) finding itself in the same category as a movie about burlesque dancers (Burlesque, which didn’t exactly receive award-worthy reviews) that’s boggling, It’s how The Tourist, a thriller about a couple on the lam in Italy, winds up nominated for this award. This film was clearly neither a comedy nor a musical, yet it finds itself nominated as such. Were the Globes really that much in need of more Johnny Depp?

While the Globes can’t seem to get enough Depp, television viewers’ bizarre need for more Glee led to its five nominations (don’t get me wrong, I like the show—but let’s be honest, if someone would have told you two years ago that a musical show about the exploits of a high school glee club set in Lima, Ohio would be the top show of 2010, you probably would have thrown a slushie in their face), including Best Comedy or Musical Television Series. It faces some stiff competition in this category though, as 30 Rock, The Big C, Modern Family, Nurse Jackie, and my personal favorite, The Big Bang Theory, are all in the running.

To view the complete list of nominations, click here, and to shop this year’s nominees, click the collection panel below:


Did the Globes get it right? Who was snubbed? What was nominated that shouldn’t have been? Is The Tourist really a comedy or musical? Let us know your thoughts below!