The winners, nonetheless, reflected the obvious shortcomings of the 78th annual Golden Globes screens Sunday night in the ratings for the NBC broadcast ceremony.
Although the network owned by Comcast does not intend to release the final numbers of Nielsen until Tuesday, semi-adapted fast-trackers show that the bicoastale show hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler was a hit last year got. And we don’t just mean the valuable slap the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is taking on some of Hollywood’s heaviest victims because of the lack of 87-member black members of the group.
The 2021 Globes broadcast had a 1.2 rating in both categories among 18-49 adults and about 5.4 million viewers, and it dropped by about 60% in both categories from the partially adjusted fast national numbers past year captured by the award-winning performance of Ricky Gervais.
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The 2020 results rose to 18.3 million viewers and a 4.7 rating in 18-49s in the final Live + Same Day Nielsen issue special ordered by NBC – numbers that are almost certainly out of reach of Sunday’s show is, adapted or not.
In their fourth time as co-hosts, SNL alums and chums Fey and Poehler have certainly seen their three-hour appearance in 2021 drop sharply from their previous tour of the HFPA service in the old days of 2015. That co-host period of the Obama era was a slump of 11% in the key demo of Fey and Poehler’s second series MCing the often boozy and loose affair in 2014.
Though these early figures are now all the benchmarks of an NBC low, let’s be honest, all these comparisons are a bit of an apple for avalanches. As with almost everything in Hollywood and the wider world, the pandemic has ruined the calendar and the format. Given much of the atmosphere that gives the Globes its appeal, the glitchy and semi-virtual ceremony was broadcast last night almost two months later than the program in 2020. So, no NFL run-up and little holiday season, just two differences. In addition, we have seen the Nielsen results of a number of award-winning shows affected by coronavirus and other major ticket events shrinking over the past year, just as with the Emmys’ viewpoint in 2020.
On the other hand, streaming numbers for such events have gradually increased, reflecting the way TV is consumed these days.
What it will do for NBC when it finally announces its cumulative Globes results on Tuesday, we’ll have to see – and we’ll keep an eye on the numbers. But if CBS looks like the Sunday winner at the moment, if you want to make a bet …
Speaking of the network owned by ViacomCBS, CBS had a total first viewership of 6.5 million on Sunday. On an evening of new offers from The equalizer (7.5 million viewers), NCIS: LA (5.7 million viewers) and NCIS: New Orleans (4.9 million viewers), the winner was 19:00 overall 60 minutes with an audience of 7.9 million.