Golden Globes to have audience-, press-free in-person ceremony

If an awards show happens without any press, audience or A-listers parading down a red carpet, did it even happen at all?

The 2022 Golden Globes will go on, just with a sliver of its usual attendees, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association said Tuesday.

Due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant surge, the association will be modifying their in-person ceremony. Now, neither press nor celebrities are invited to the 79th annual awards ceremony, which will take place without an audience.

The announcement comes just days before the show’s scheduled date, Jan. 9, 2022.

Only “select members and grantees” will be allowed at this year’s Globes, and a number of additional restrictions will be required of them, including proof of vaccination, a booster shot and a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of the event.

And, “there will be no red carpet,” the association announced. All guests must be masked and socially distanced “at all times while inside the ballroom,” according to a press release. 

The release makes no mention of a livestream or other virtual way to tune-in. 

Also missing from Sunday’s ceremony will be celebrity presenters, although their omission is not COVID-related: Sources tell Variety that no stars have agreed to take part in the Globes, likely due to the HFPA’s recent diversity controversy. NBC cancelled its annual telecast of the awards after the HFPA was lambasted for corruption-related allegations and for having no black members. 

In response, the release noted that “the HFPA has completely overhauled its bylaws, implementing sweeping changes from top to bottom addressing ethics and code of conduct, diversity, equity and inclusion, governance, membership and more. In October, the HFPA admitted its largest and most diverse class to date with 21 new journalists, all of whom were first-time Golden Globe voters.”

During this weekend’s program, the release adds, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Hollywood Bureau senior vice president Kyle Bowser will discuss a five-year diversity initiative called the “Reimagine Coalition.” The project is a collaborative effort between the HFPA and the NAACP to fund and support “projects from artists of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.”