The Golden Globes should be the first domino: It's time to get rid of all award shows

The Washington Post

"The collapse of this self-congratulatory season should be an opportunity, not a calamity," says Alyssa Rosenberg. "The Globes ought to be the first domino. It’s time for pop culture to rethink its reliance on awards shows entirely. The ratings for the major awards shows have been trending down for years, but the numbers have been truly catastrophic during the pandemic. Last fall’s Emmys saw viewership decline 12 percent. The number of people who watched the Golden Globes in February fell by more than 60 percent. The Grammys’ audience sank by more than half. And just 10 million people tuned in to the Oscars, a 56 percent drop from 2020...Awards-giving should continue: It’s important for reputable professional organizations to recognize the great work happening in their midst, to elevate promising members of their crafts and honor lifetimes of achievement. But if they’re wise, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Recording Academy and the three television academies behind the Emmys will use this time to consider whether putting on their awards shows continues to make sense at all. Sure, these organizations are less compromised than the HFPA. Still, they’ve all suffered their share of blowups over diversity, and the opulent Oscars gift bags are grotesque pseudo-bribery of another sort. Yes, the Grammys, alone among these four marquee ceremonies, regularly features some striking performances. But they’re the exception that proves the rule. No one seems to know how to host the Golden Globes, Oscars or Emmys in a way that’s satisfying without being smug, or that plays to audiences at home without denigrating the whole proceeding. If the audience that remains is turning in for fashion, there are plenty of other ways to see gorgeous people in terrific — or horrifying — dresses and suits. If they’re showing up for the possibility of witnessing rudeness or disaster, reality television is always going to outflank the awards shows on that score. And for all the lofty rhetoric about how important the technical work that goes into art is, the awards shows never really manage to explain those contributions well, anyway."