NBC is refusing to air the 2022 Golden Globe Awards and calling for the HFPA to improve diversity
- NBC said on Monday that it would not air the 2022 Golden Globes.
- It followed a report on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's financial practices and lack of diversity.
- The HFPA organizes the Golden Globes each year.
NBC said Monday that it would not air the 2022 Golden Globes and called for reforms in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the influential organization that runs the once-prestigious annual awards.
"We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform," NBC said in a statement. "However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right."
"As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023," the statement continued.
Insider reached out to the HFPA on Monday after NBC's announcement, but didn't hear back.
Earlier this year, a series of detailed investigations published by the Los Angeles Times revealed major financial and ethical failures within the HFPA. The investigation largely focused on the validity of Golden Globes nominations, which have often proved controversial.
This year, for instance, the industry questioned why Netflix's light-hearted series "Emily in Paris" received two nods, but the moving work depicted in HBO's "I May Destroy You" was snubbed.
A Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that producers of "Emily in Paris" flew over 30 Golden Globes voters to France for a luxury visit of the show's set.
A source close to the HFPA told Insider back in February in a statement that the trip was "common with entertainment journalists from around the world."
"HFPA members attend set visits, premieres, and press conferences. The notion that these visits have any influence over nominees for the Golden Globes is absurd," the statement continued.
Still, the LA Times investigation also raised the fact that none of the group's 87 members are Black. Not to mention, the organization had inducted no Black members in nearly two decades.
A former HFPA president was also found to have referred to Black Lives Matter as a "racist hate movement."
Shortly after, more than 100 publicists for Hollywood stars told the HFPA that they would cut off the group's access to their clients unless it made a "transformational change."
Also, major Hollywood studios such as Netflix, Amazon Studios, and WarnerMedia said they would boycott the Globes and HFPA events until it fixed its breadth of issues.
Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson spoke out earlier on Monday, urging the industry to "step back" from the awards show, and later that day Tom Cruise, who has won three awards, returned his trophies to protest the association's lack of diversity.
Last week, 75 of the HFPA's 86 members voted in favor of reforms aimed at helping to expand the group's membership, hiring an executive focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, and implementing other diversity initiatives.