The LATimes’ Matea Gold writes about NBC’s decision to salvage the Golden Globes by turning the night into a news production. Former CBS & CNN correspondent Deborah Potter tells the Times, “It’s pretty clear there isn’t much of a firewall between news and sales anymore, but my goodness, you don’t want to bulldoze it.”
A special Dateline featuring actor interviews will be followed by a news conference announcing the Golden Globe winners. Said NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust, “Given all the attention that has been focused on this event and related industry issues, it is clearly worthy of our coverage.”
Gold writes, “By turning the awards announcement into a news event, NBC was able to skirt the $6-million license fee that would normally have been paid to the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which hands out the awards. And by holding the event under the umbrella of the news division — whose employees do not work under the Writers Guild contract that is currently under dispute — the network hopes to avoid a picket line that could keep stars from attending. (Guild officials said they still might picket the news conference.)”