The 2024 Awards Season is in full swing. The air is buzzing with anticipation, the red carpets are rolled out, and Hollywood is alive with excitement! After a year of remarkable performances and outstanding achievements, 2023 brought some great contenders into the spotlight. The Hollywood Reporter describes that breakthrough films like Barbie, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things are dominating conversations and earning critical acclaim across the board.
On January 10th, the Golden Globes kicked off the season with an exciting night of celebration. The ceremony honors both film and television, as well as setting the stage for all upcoming awards. Held in Beverly Hills, the event had many stars in attendance including Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Aniston, Timothee Chalamet, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift. Big winners of the night included Oppenheimer and TV series Succession, Beef, and The Bear. Oppenheimer emerged as the movie to beat in the coming Oscar race, winning five Golden Globes, and HBO’s Succession was the top television winner, as expected, with four awards. In the acting categories, performances from Emma Stone in Poor Things, and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer won for leading roles in the comedy and drama categories, respectively. Lily Gladstone made history as the first indigenous person to win Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon. The Holdovers won acting awards for Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. And Barbie received the Box Office Achievement Award, a brand new category this year.
The awards momentum continued a week later with the Emmys and Critics Choice Awards. The Critics Choice Awards echoed the success of Oppenheimer as it continued as a massive hit, earning eight top trophies including Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr), and Best Ensemble. Though Oppenheimer won in the biggest categories, its box office rival, Barbie, entered the night as the most nominated movie, with a record-breaking 18 nominations. Barbie was awarded best comedy, and the SeeHer Award, which honors the accurate portrayal of women and girls in media was presented to America Ferrara for her outstanding performance in the film.
As for the Emmys, which honor the best of prime-time television, Succession, The Bear, and Beef again stole the show, each receiving at least five wins, dominating all of the big categories. The ceremony was heavy on nostalgia, featuring reunions of the casts of Cheers, Grey’s Anatomy, and other beloved series. And Elton John joined the exclusive EGOT club with his win for his Disney+ live concert special. Now that awards season is in full swing, anticipation is only building for the grand finale at the Oscars, on March 10th, where the best of the best will be celebrated on the biggest stage in Hollywood.
During the awards season, it could be said that the entertainers are instead being entertained by the hosts for the night. The award shows not only bring with them recognition for the artists but also another performance to be judged. How the host and other presenters conduct the show is critiqued by all, ranging from the attendees to those watching at home. The role of the host needs to be someone able to combine charisma, comedy, and likability. This job can be an honor yet it can come with much criticism.
In Ricky Gervais’s last role hosting he went on a media frenzy-inducing monologue “calling out” many Hollywood stars and their controversial behavior. Reflecting on the event, Rolling Stone Magazine wrote “Worst Host: Ricky Gervais Not Bringing His A-Game”. Getting a good rating may be a fantasy when hosting an awards show. Here are some of the worst-received hosts across the major shows: David Letterman (1994 Oscars), James Franco (2011 Oscars), Chris Rock (2005 Oscars), Colin Jost and Michael Che (2018 Emmys) and Reality Show Hosts (2008 Emmys). Now critiques scrutinize each performance for different reasons, but each opinion is still subjective.
For each award show every year, there is usually one host. Yet there are many exceptions. The Oscars have been conducted without a host in 1939, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1989, 2019, 2020, and 2021. The years 1989 and 2021 were categorized as being artistic choices, however, the others were not. For the first four shows that were hostless, there was no explanation given by the Academy. The 2019 host, Kevin Hart, stepped down because of controversy over statements made years prior regarding the LGBTQ community. Not only have there been times when there is no host, but there have also been years with multiple hosts. These include the very first Oscars in 1929, 1945, 1946, 1953-1959, 1972-1977, 1983, 1985-1987, 2010, 2011, and most recently 2022. The year with the most hosts was 1985 when there was one main host, Jack Lemmon, and 10 co-hosts consisting of the biggest stars of the age. There have been nine entertainers who hosted the event more than once. However, comedian/actor Bob Hope surpassed them all with a whopping 19 times hosting the Oscars (5 of which were co-hosted). For the Grammys, singer Andy Williams with 7 times hosting has had the job the most, but nineteen others have also had it multiple times. The Grammys have gone hostless far more times than the Oscars coming in at 16 shows. The Golden Globes differs from the other award ceremonies as they did not start having official hosts till 1995 and didn’t have them again till 2010. Ricky Gervais hosted for three years starting in 2010 and handed it off to Tina Fey and Amy Pohler who hosted for three years as well before Gervis took over the reins again for 2016 and 2020. Sources for Fey and Polar said the two never want to host again. There have been Golden Globes hosts for every year between 2010 and now, besides 2022. The Emmys have had multiple hosts 15 times, and gone hostless four times most recently matching the Oscars in 2019.
Celebrity publicists say that the job of a host is not worth it as there is a lot of criticism that goes with anyone hosting. This year there was much debate over the Golden Globes host. It led to the host, Joy Koy, getting the role just 10 days before the show. People offered the job included Chris Rock, Ali Wong, and the potential trio of Will Arnett, Sean Hayes, and Jason Bateman. All those who were offered turned down the position due to various reasons.
Regarding the shows so far this year the hosting reviews have been mixed. For the Golden Globes, there is much hate for certain jokes said by Joy Koy such as one mentioning Taylor Swift and another about Barbie. This has led to fans calling the show anti-feminist and Koy a bad choice. The Emmys had a relatively better review. Hosted by Anthony Anderson, the star made the event a family affair. Anderson added another level of comedy by having his mom help him with some hosting abilities, including cutting off the winners’ speeches. Vanity Fair said, “Anthony Anderson played it safe by going nostalgic at the Emmys”. This is regarding how not only did Anderson give a piece of the role to his mother but he also brought back old sitcoms to make jokes and present awards.
With the Grammys and Oscars hosted by Trevor Noah and Jimmy Kimmel, respectively, still to go, talk over the hosts is sure to continue. As awards season resumes in a couple of weeks, Hollywood will bring on the glitz and glam once again. More celebration of a year of great entertainment is still to come so tune in!