The HFPA and NBC have determined the airdate for the 77th Golden Globes and they haven’t been scared off by an earlier Oscars telecast date. The 2020 Globes will take place on Sunday, Jan. 5. That will make it the fourth telecast in a row to take place on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in August that the 2020 Oscars will take place on Feb. 9, two weeks earlier than the most recent “traditional” timeframe of the third Sunday in February. This has caused all sorts of disruption in the awards season and film festival calendar. The Grammy Awards, which traditionally aired the second Sunday of February, were forced to push their air date to Jan. 26, 2020. That’s currently the same date as the 2020 SAG Awards (which makes zero sense for TNT and TBS who air the SAGs). The Santa Barbara Film Festival, an event that has made its name on awards season panels, has historically been held during the first week of February. The 2020 edition will be an extremely early Jan 15-Jan 25. That overlaps with the 2020 Sundance Film Festival which has already been set for Jan. 23-Feb. 2 before the Oscars announcement. The Berlin Film Festival made a smart decision moving from it’s usual early February frame to Feb. 20 through March 1 engagement for 2020, at least.
READ MORE: Best and Worst of the 2019 Golden Globes
The Globes saw a ratings increase for 2019 so NBC likely sees no reason to move the awards show into December. There will be consequences by sticking to the 5th, however, as the Globes will minimize their ability to influence Oscar nomination voting. For the past two years, there has been almost a week for the HFPA’s choices to influence AMPAS members as they make their final picks. This upcoming season will find Oscar moving it’s voting window to Jan. 2 – Jan. 7. Most voters will likely have submitted their ballots by the time the Globes air. There are many who believe the HFPA awarding “Bohemian Rhapsody” the Best Film – Drama Globe “validated” the film to AMPAS voters. The likelihood of something similar happening in 2020 seems, for the moment, improbable. As always, however, the Globes nominations announcement in December often reminds voters what screeners or films they need to catch up on over the year-end holiday break. So, they still serve a purpose to Oscar campaigners.
It should be noted this is the earliest NBC and the HFPA have announced the Globes date in some time. The 2019 date was not revealed until July of last year. At a minimum, that’s a win for awards consultants and studios planning their release and marketing strategies.