Free Republic

♦ With the Gotham Awards moving to gender-neutral acting categories, the conversation shifts to when more awards shows will follow suit. IndieWire’s TV Awards Editor Libby Hill and Deputy Editor Ben Travers stopped for a Double Take to assess what might happen next — and what’s stopping it from happening sooner. BEN TRAVERS: On Thursday, the Gotham Film and Media Institute announced its annual awards show, the Gotham Awards, would be eliminating the Best Actor and Best Actress categories in favor of gender-neutral groupings that highlight Lead and Supporting performers. In addition, it tweaked the title of its Breakthrough Actor...

Winners notwithstanding, the obvious shortcomings of the 78th annual Golden Globes on-screen last night were reflected in the ratings for the NBC broadcast ceremony today. Though the Comcast-owned network doesn’t plan to release final numbers from Nielsen until tomorrow, semi-adjusted fast nationals reveal the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler bicoastal hosted show took a hit from last year. A big hit. And we don’t just mean the worthy whack the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been taking from some of Tinseltown’s heaviest hitters over the 87-member group’s total lack of Black members. Coming in with a 1.2 rating among adults...

The 2020 American Music Awards delivered a big decline in rating and total viewership from last year, falling to record lows in both measurements. Last night’s awards show, which was hosted by “Empire” star Taraji P. Henson and saw Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Dan + Shay emerge as the big winners, averaged a 0.9 rating among adults 18-49 and around 3.8 million total viewers. That represents a 50% rating decline and a 43% loss in total viewership. For comparison, last years AMAs were down only 4% on the year prior in the ratings column, and in fact gained around...

The never-ending awards season is about to get even longer. Debuting in December 2018, The "Awardies," the first-ever award show honoring award shows, will honor the best from all award shows including film, television, theater, and music awards. Categories for the "Awardies" will include best award show, host, presenter, speech, reaction by a winner, reaction by a loser, musical performance, best outfit, red carpet interview, and best reaction shot by an audience member. Reaction to the news about the Awardies has been mostly negative so far. "Ugh. How many award shows do these out-of-touch, bubble-dwelling elitists need?" wrote a prominent...

The Golden Globes show is getting a major security upgrade from the Beverly Hills police department for its 75th anniversary show, set for Sunday, January 7 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Citing the number of event attacks this year – which have included the Ariana Grande concert bombing and Las Vegas mass shooting at a country music festival, to name two entertainment-related events – there will be additional staff and security at the Globes, even though there are currently no specific credible threats. Metal detectors, explosives testing and canine patrols are likely part of the plan, and...

It’s hard to recall a season when Hollywood has been so harshly at odds with so much of its potential audience. On Wednesday, Robert Redford became the latest in a growing string of celebrities to pepper the summer/fall film promotions with reprimands and recrimination. “We’ve lost our moral foundation,” the Oscar winner told Esquire, speaking of the year-ago presidential election in an interview keyed to the upcoming Netflix release of Our Souls at Night, in which the small-minded gossips of small-town Colorado cluck at his senior moment with Jane Fonda. “We’re the ones who let that happen. We should be...

Paddy Chayefsky and Politics at the Oscars AWESOME!

They really should have known it wasn’t going to work out when he suggested that “Ellen DeGeneres has crabs.” Sentiments like that are never positive. Perhaps they also should have reviewed one of his lively comic routines before hiring him. Maybe then they would have learned that he’s a racist swine with a penchant for ideas that would make death row inmates blush. Abortion in America is “beautiful”? Not good. No serious person was really surprised to learn that Chris Rock believes only gays watch the Oscars. After his position on gay marriage was recently exposed—“f*** them fa**ots,” he explained...

Its time for the Oscars kiddies! can you feel the excitement building?? I haven't been to the movies since the second Austin Powers movie and I refuse to watch these bloody award shows. they are all just an example of collective masturbation.Some day eveyone in Hollyweird will have their own award show. I can just see it now: Welcome to the Susan Sarandon Awards for 2006 Up for best Susan Sarandon in a movie starring Susan Sarandon is(drum roll) Susan Sarandon.... the winner is(Another annoying drum roll as the audience holds their breath in anticipation) Susan Sarandon!(Insert crescendo of horns...