The Golden Globes posted some of their crappiest ratings ever last night

There have been a lot of questions, over the last few years, about what purpose the Golden Globes serve at this point. Embroiled in controversies about the diversity of its voting membership, its general relevance to the Hollywood ecosystem, and the films and shows it ultimately chooses to reward, the show has increasingly seemed like little more than just another way to get awards show fans watching their TVs for an evening for the benefit of NBC.

And now, not even that, really: THR reports that last night’s Golden Globes broadcast was one of the least-watched in the show’s history, beating out, for NBC, only the 2008 show—which, due to the writer’s strike at the time, was literally just a press conference announcing the winners. They even fell below the last broadcast show, back in 2021, which was filmed mostly remotely. (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association didn’t bother airing the Globes last year because, well, see the first paragraph of this story.)

All told, NBC picked up about 6.25 million viewers last night, down roughly 10 percent from 2021. This, despite there being a number of notable moments from the show, including host Jerrod Carmichael’s fascinating, long-form explanation for why the hell he was hosting the Golden Globes.

To be fair, these problems aren’t necessarily Globes-specific; awards show ratings have been dropping across the board for the last few years, with the Emmys posting some of their lowest ratings ever for their 2022 show. And it doesn’t seem to be reversing, as viewers obviously have about 8 jillion other ways to spend their viewing time that don’t involve tuning in to “event” TV at this point.

Still, it has to be another factor as NBC tries to decide why it’s going to all the work to update the show for the modern era, huh?