The 2023 Golden Globes ceremony falls to its lowest ratings ever on NBC

The Golden Globes returned to television this year not with a bang, but with a whimper. Tuesday night’s NBC broadcast of the 80th annual ceremony drew just 6.3 million people, according to Nielsen data.

This is the lowest attendance ever for the Golden Globes, which will drop to just 6.9 million in 2021. That was barely a third the size of 2020’s 18.3 million. Last year’s ceremony was not televised following revelations of a lack of diversity and allegations of impropriety within the HFPA, the organization that awards the worlds.

So add that the show took place on a Tuesday, and it makes sense that viewership would drop even further. The program failed to run with the target group of advertisers between the ages of 18 and 49. With a grade of 1.1, it was well below the grade of 1.5 from 2021.

The only time things got worse around the Globes was during the 2008 writers’ strike, when the HFPA basically just held a press conference instead of a ceremony. It brought in 6 million viewers.

Previously, the Globes took place on Sunday evenings. But it makes sense that NBC (or any broadcaster for that matter) wouldn’t want to sacrifice the Sunday primetime spot for such a small audience, especially if it means Soccer Sunday night, which can generate at least a tripling of the audience, even on a bad night. Last Sunday, the Lions-Packers regular season finale averaged 23.6 million viewers.

Even on weekdays, NBC had competition. It did manage to get the average total viewership during prime time, but not by much. CBS came in second, averaging 6.1 million viewers FBI Trilogy. Of course, CBS and NBC were only competing for the East Coast primary spot, since the Globes aired coast-to-coast and CBS’ scripted lineup did not.

These figures do not include views across Peacock or digital platforms, so the final viewership will increase – although probably not enough to make a really significant difference. These numbers are not fully available yet as they come with Live + 3 day delayed viewing.

The awards were presented on Tuesday Black Panther: Wakanda Foreverby Angela Bassett, The Fables and director Steven Spielberg, Everything, everywhere, all at onceby Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, elvis even Austin Butler, Abbot Primary School and its maker star Quinta Brunson and the white lotus and star Jennifer Coolidge among others. Check out the full list of winners here.