NBC Will Broadcast An Empty Red Carpet

Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 5, 2008

NBC pays $5 million a year in license fees for the right to air the Golden Globes, and makes millions of dollars in profit from ad revenue, says the L.A. Times. That means with or without the stars who plan to boycott the Globes in a solidarity movement with the WGA.

NBC spokeswoman, Rebecca Marks, says the net is prepared to telecast the event on January 13th, no matter what. It’s the “what” part that may turn the Globes into a no-celeb and boring event. Then again, we may watch it just to see the empty red carpet and know that when actors and writers stick together, they are very, very strong.

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. was planning to announce that they would have a “private” Golden Globes party without television cameras, to avoid a potentially ugly spectacle: an empty red carpet as celebrities refuse to cross the Writers Guild of America’s planned picket line,” says the Times. But the HFPA and Dick Clark Productions has a deal with NBC to provide the awards show for a nationally broadcast event.

NBC insists it will go forward, ignoring widespread rumors to the contrary.

Read more articles by Maggie Van Ostrand