Hollywood may have loved the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, but the rest of America felt otherwise.
Even though last year’s politically-charged Golden Globes could boast of limited success in the ratings, it seems Hollywood learned nothing and went all-in for another politically-charged awards show. The result: lower ratings.
According to Variety, Nielsen ratings show the Golden Globes dropped a full 11% in the coveted 18-49 demographic while suffering a 5% drop in total viewers — 19 million compared to last year’s 20 million.
What could possibly be the reason for this? The barrage of classless speeches and mean-spirited quips of male-bashing from the likes of Natalie Portman, Geena Davis and Barbara Streisand perhaps.
Host Seth Meyers did little to help the situation. Prior to the show, the comedian promised to make the show political by bashing President Trump. “He holds the keys to us not talking about him, which would to be to just behave differently,” Meyers said of Trump. “But while he continues on this path, we’ll continue on ours.”
Indeed, his opening monologue did just that.
“Greetings ladies and remaining gentlemen,” he said upon taking the stage. “We’re all here at the courtesy of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. A string of three words that could not have been better designed to infuriate our president. The only name that would make him angrier would be the Hillary Mexico Salad Association.”
Despite the low ratings, the Golden Globes still enjoyed an improvement over 2016, which saw a 5.5 rating and 18.7 million viewers.