NEW YORK (AP) — An average of 10.1 million viewers tuned into the 82nd Golden Globes across CBS and Paramount+, Dick Clark Productions said Monday, roughly matching the audience for last year's broadcast.
CBS reported ratings figures from VideoAmp rather than the industry standard audience measurement service, Nielsen. Paramount Global, which owns CBS, is in a contract dispute with Nielsen.
At a time when most traditional linear telecasts are in decline, holding steady from last year's Globes' audience was sure to count as a success for the Nikki Glaser-hosted broadcast. Last year's show, the Globes' first on CBS, drew an audience of 9.4 million, though that was according to Nielsen.
Before the pandemic, though, the Globes typically drew closer to 20 million viewers. In 2020, 18.4 million watched the Globes.
But the Globes were teetering on the brink of termination as recently as two years ago. After The Los Angeles Times reported that the HFPA had no Black members, Hollywood boycotted the organization and the 2022 Globes were booted off the air. NBC aired the 2023 edition and then dropped the awards show.
The 2024 Globes had their issues, too, with many calling the Jo Koy-hosted ceremony a trainwreck. But the ratings rebounded and CBS signed up for five more years. Following the scandals, the awards were acquired by Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, which Penske Media owns, and turned into a for-profit venture.
Sunday's ceremony, which ran concurrently with NBC's broadcast of the Minnesota Viking-Detroit Lions game, drew much better reviews for Glaser. The top prizes of the night went to the Netflix musical “Emilia Perez” and the A24 postwar epic “The Brutalist.” On the TV side, FX's “Shōgun” and Max's “Hacks” went home winners.
Cosmo Jarvis, from left, Anna Sawai, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Tadanobu Asano pose in the press room with the award for best television series - drama for "Shogun" during the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Mona Fastvold, from left, Ada Corbet, and Brady Corbet, winner of the award for best director - motion picture for "The Brutalist", pose in the press room during the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Adriana Paz, from left, Edgar Ramirez, Selena Gomez, Jacques Audiard, Karla Sofia Gascon, and Zoe Saldana pose in the press room with the award for best motion picture - musical or comedy for "Emilia Perez" during the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Nikki Glaser arrives at the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
LONDON (AP) — Fresh from pouring his money and energies into helping Donald Trump win reelection, Elon Musk has trained his sights on Europe, setting off alarm bells among politicians across the continent.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany, demanded the release of jailed U.K. anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson and called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer an evil tyrant who should be in prison.
Many European politicians have been left concerned by the attention. Musk’s feed on his social network X is dotted with abusive language — labeling politicians “stupid cretin” and “sniveling cowards” — as well as retweets of far-right and anti-immigrant accounts.
Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University, said Musk is using X “a bit like an old-style newspaper mogul,” to promulgate his political views.
“We’ve seen Musk start to align himself much more obviously with an international movement of the far right,” Chadwick said. ”If you look at the kinds of people who Musk himself is boosting on his platform … he’s increasingly started to assemble a group of different right-wing influencers, many of them with large followings, and presenting their evidence as a basis for his interventions into European politics.”
Musk has inserted himself into politics in Germany, which is headed for a Feb. 23 election after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious three-party coalition government collapsed.
On Dec. 20, Musk wrote on X: “Only the AfD can save Germany,” a reference to the Alternative for Germany party, which is under observation by the domestic intelligence agency for suspected extremism.
He doubled down on support for the AfD in an article for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, claiming Germany is “teetering on the edge of economic and cultural collapse.” Later this week Musk is due to hold a live chat on X with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel.
Scholz’s response embodies the dilemma faced by European politicians — should they ignore and let Musk’s comments go unchallenged, or engage and risk amplifying them?
Scholz has said it’s important to “stay cool” over personal attacks, but called Musk’s involvement in German politics worrying. In a new year message, Scholz pointedly noted that Germany’s way forward “will not be decided by the owners of social media channels” but by German voters.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned Monday about the risks posed by unchecked power in the hands of tech billionaires and the destabilizing impact they could have on democratic institutions.
“Who could have imagined, 10 years ago, that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” Macron said.
Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said Musk’s behavior was “troubling and far from amusing.”
“Someone cannot simply use their platform, wealth and connections to try to dictate how governments are formed in each nation,” he told Parapolitika Radio. “This is becoming increasingly dangerous.”
Musk has increasingly focused on British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July, calling Starmer an “evil” leader presiding over a “tyrannical police state.”
Musk’s recent focus is on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns several years ago, in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of mostly white girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration and Islam.
Musk has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013 — a charge Starmer strongly denies.
“Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain,” Musk tweeted.
Chadwick said “there’s been a hesitancy on the part of the political elite in the U.K. to engage” with Musk’s “incredibly inflammatory remarks.” But Starmer changed tack Monday, condemning “lies and misinformation” and accusing U.K. Conservative politicians who have echoed some of Musk’s points of “amplifying what the far right are saying.”
“I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies,” the prime minister said.
Starmer is facing calls to tighten Britain’s laws on foreign interference, and governments around the world are under pressure to leave X. Both the U.K. and German governments say they have no plans to quit the platform.
Musk’s X is under investigation by European authorities attempting to curb hatred, disinformation and other toxic content on social media. The European Union has launched infringement proceedings against X under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, and EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said it will look at whether Musk's livestream interview Thursday with the AfD's Weidel gives inappropriate “preferential treatment” to the party during a preelection period.
Musk, a self-styled free-speech advocate, is critical of efforts to regulate social media. He has compared British attempts to weed out online misinformation through the Online Safety Act to censorship in the Soviet Union.
Musk clearly enjoys baiting mainstream politicians on social media, but Chadwick said it “remains to be seen” whether his posting changes public attitudes or helps the causes he champions.
And the political interventions carry risk for him. His comments are being watched closely by Tesla investors for signs he could be turning off car buyers who don’t agree with his politics.
Tesla is already struggling in Europe, where new registrations for Musk’s electronic vehicles fell 13% in the first nine months of 2023, according to auto researcher Jato Dynamics. In Germany, Tesla registrations dropped 44%.
Jato senior analyst Felipe Munoz said that Musk's outspokenness is rare and risky for the owner of a publicly traded company — though it may pay off in the end.
“Europe is going to (the) right,” he said, pointing to politicians including France’s Marine Le Pen and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.
“Look at what happened in the U.S. His bet on Trump worked. He is playing the same game in Europe.”
Geir Moulson in Berlin; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Raf Casert in Brussels; Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece; and Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this story.
FILE - Elon Musk jumps on the stage as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits a healthcare provider to deliver remarks on reducing NHS wait times, in Surrey, England, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during a visit to the company MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg in his constituency, Ludwigsfelde, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Christoph Gollnow/dpa via AP)
FILE - People carry candles attending an AfD election campaign in front of the cathedral in Magdeburg, Germany, on Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
FILE - Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
