The 79th Golden Globes won’t have a live audience or red carpet, HFPA announces

The 79th Golden Globes will still take place on Sunday, but they’ll look a little different than prior years. The show will not be televised, and the ceremony will take place without an audience or its traditional red carpet, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Tuesday. 

“Because of the current pandemic surge, health and safety remain a top priority for the HFPA,” the association said in a statement.

Winners will still be announced, but the only guests permitted inside the venue will be members of the HFPA and recipients of their grants and scholarship programs. Guests will be required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination and a booster shot, as well as a negative PCR test taken within the last 48 hours. 

The news comes after a controversy-filled year for the association. The HFPA, which nominates and chooses the recipients of the Golden Globes, was accused by key figures in Hollywood of financial impropriety and a decided lack of diversity in its membership. 

In May, NBC announced it would not televise the award show over the controversy surrounding the HFPA. 

“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform,” NBC said in a statement at the time. “However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right.”

Following the celebrity and sponsor response, the HFPA committed to institutional “transformational change,” a goal they have said they worked towards in 2020 by overhauling their bylaws, adding changes to ethics code and admitting the “largest and most diverse” class of 21 new voters.