Tonight’s untelevised, unglamorous, un-dignified Golden Globe Awards carries at least one silver lining for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and its producing partner, MRC: They ultimately probably won’t lose money on it.
NBC usually pays MRC (formerly Dick Clark Productions) around $60 million to air the Globes, which the producer splits with the H.F.P.A. That’s not happening this year, thanks to NBC yanking the show off the air amid the H.F.P.A.’s diversity and ethics scandal. Regular readers will remember that I noted awhile back that MRC wanted to be paid anyway, arguing that NBC unilaterally canceled the 2022 Globes before giving MRC a chance to fix any problems. NBC said no way, claiming that MRC, thanks to the talent boycott, was unable to deliver a show on par with previous years—as required by the contract—thus there’s no obligation to pay the hefty license fee.
