Nathan Lane, Michaela Jae Rodriguez and Carl Clemons-Hopkins are among the list of entertainers receiving honors at the inaugural Critics Choice Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Television ceremony set for June 7 in Los Angeles. 

The event, which honors the finest achievements from the LGBTQ+ entertainment community both in front of and behind the camera, will recognize Lane with its Career Achievement Award; Rodriguez with its Vanguard Award for her work in the Apple TV Plus’ comedy series Loot; and Carl Clemons-Hopkins, who will receive the Supporting Performance Award for Television for their role in Max’s Emmy Award-winning series Hacks, according to the Critics Choice Association. 

“I am extremely proud to be able to announce this inaugural event showcasing the best performances from the LGBTQ+ community in film and television,” said Joey Berlin, CEO of the Critics Choice Association in a statement. “A significant number of the CCA’s membership identifies as LGBTQ+, so this Celebration is extremely meaningful to our organization.”

The Critics Choice Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television event will stream on Here TV, according to the organization.

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Other event honorees as announced by the Critics Choice Association include:

• Showrunner, executive producer, director and writer Abe Sylvia will receive the Showrunner Award for his work on the Apple TV Plus comedy series Palm Royale.
• Actor Chris Perfetti will be honored with the Breakthrough Performance Award for Television (Series) for his role as Jacob Hill in the ABC, Warner Bros. Television and 20th Television series Abbott Elementary.
• Actor Fernando Carsa will receive the Rising Star Award for his role as Memo in the Apple TV Plus series, Acapulco.
• Star Trek actor George Takei will accept the Social Justice Award for his tireless fight for LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and marriage equality.
• Henry R. Muñoz III will receive the CCA’s first-ever Industry Leadership Award for not only being an advocate for LGBTQ+ equality, but also for his philanthropic involvements and commitment to advance diverse storytelling through his leadership at Funny Or Die.
• Chef, author, and entrepreneur Kristen Kish will be awarded the TV Host Award for her work as the host on Bravo’s Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series Top Chef.
• Director/writer Luke Gilford will be honored with the Breakthrough Director Award for his work on LD Entertainment’s film National Anthem.
• Director Oliver Hermanus will be awarded the Director Award for Television (Series) for his work in the Starz limited series Mary & George.
• Producers Ron Nyswaner, Matt Bomer, Daniel Minahan and Robbie Rogers will receive the Producer Award for their work on the Paramount Plus With Showtime series Fellow Travelers.
• The RuPaul’s Drag Race team will accept the Trailblazer Award for the Emmy Award-winning MTV Entertainment series.
• Actor, writer, and director Shakina will receive the Writer Award for Television (Series) for her work in the NBC and Universal Television series Quantum Leap.
• Co-creators Johnnie Ingram and Stephen Warren, along with showrunner/director Peter LoGreco and drag queens Sasha Velour, Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Latrice Royale will be honored with the Reality TV Award on behalf of the Emmy Award-winning HBO original series We’re Here.

LG Ads sees viewing of awards shows via streamers increasing and says that creates opportunities for advertisers — especially with 50% of the viewers shopping with their phones while they’re watching.

The survey found that 87% of viewers are likely to multitask with a mobile phone or another device while watching an awards show, with 50% engaged in shopping.3.s shows higher interest in viewing awardsss shows, including the upcoming Oscars and Emmys.

Viewing of those award shows will increasingly come via streaming versus pay TV, with 60% of those surveyed planning to stream at least one award show in 2023.

The survey found that 87% of viewers are likely to multitask with a mobile phone or another device while watching an award show, with 50% engaged in shopping.

“Advertising in award shows is expensive, and therefore, may not be as efficient in terms of return on ad spending,” the report said. “Surrounding these shows with native CTV and cross-screen ads can help you reach the same audiences at lower cost, optimizing for return on investment.”

The reports points to its finding that viewers are likely to use their mobile phones to shop while watching award shows, making cross-device targeting an effective way to drive conversions.

The report found that 96% of viewers feel more favorable toward brand that sponsor award shows. Similarly, 95% of viewers are likely to be paying attention and remember brands that sponsor awards shows.

LG Ads conducted its study in January, with a survey of an online panel of 755 people. ▪️

HBO’s Succession got the Golden Globe for best drama, while Hacks of HBO Max was named best comedy. 

The Golden Globes salute the best in television and film. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced its winners January 9. NBC has been the longtime broadcast partner for the awards, but pulled out amidst controversy related to the HFPA. The event was not televised this year.

HBO cleaned up on the TV side, claiming six Golden Globes. The others went to Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, FX, Hulu and Netflix, all with one. 

Succession picked up three Globes. Hacks got two and a host of entrants got one. 

Best drama was between Netflix’s Lupin, Apple TV Plus’s The Morning Show, FX’s Pose, Netflix’s Squid Game and HBO’s Succession.

Best comedy was between The Great on Hulu, Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, Reservation Dogs on FX on Hulu, Ted Lasso on Apple TV Plus and Hacks on HBO Max. 

Best actress in a drama went to Michaela Jae Rodriguez of FX’s Pose. Best actor in a drama is Jeremy Strong of Succession. 

Best actress in a comedy is Jean Smart of Hacks, and actor in a comedy is Jason Sudeikis of Apple TV Plus’s Ted Lasso.

Top limited series is Amazon Prime’s The Underground Railroad.  

Best actress in a limited series went to Kate Winslet of HBO’s Mare of Easttown. Best actor in a limited series went to Michael Keaton of Hulu’s Dopesick. 

Best supporting actress is Sarah Snook from Succession, and best supporting actor is O Yeong-Su of Netflix’s Squid Game. 

Netflix did better on the movie side, leading among distributors with four Globes, ahead of 20th Century Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures at three. 

Netflix’s The Power of the Dog and West Side Story from 20th Century Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures each got three Golden Globes. 

The Power of the Dog got top drama among 2021 movies. West Side Story was best musical or comedy. 

Nicole Kidman won best actress in a drama for Being the Ricardos. Will Smith won best actor for King Richard. 

Rachel Zegler won best actress in a musical or comedy for West Side Story, and Andrew Garfield got best actor in the category for Tick, Tick…Boom!

Best animated film went to Encanto, and best non-English movie went to Drive My Car. 

Best supporting actress went to Ariana Debose of West Side Story and best supporting actor was Kodi Smit-Mcphee from The Power of the Dog.

Jane Campion of The Power of the Dog won best director and Kenneth Branagh of Belfast got best screenplay.  

Best original score went to Hans Zimmer of Dune and best original song to “No Time to Die” from Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. ■ 

The delay of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards because of the spread of COVID-19 puts the estimated $67 million in ad sales the show has generated for CBS in jeopardy.

The 2021 Grammys generated $67.6 million in ad revenue for CBS, according to ad data and analysis company Standard Media Index. That was up from $67 million in 2020 and $60.2 million in 2019, despite falling viewership.

Advertisers paid an average of $866,200 for 30-second spots in the 2021 broadcast, according to SMI, up from $831,000 in 2020 and $784,400 in 2019.

No new date for the award show has been set.

A postponement could lead some advertisers to change plans. If the awards are canceled, CBS would lose a high-profile, premium event.

If COVID-19 makes it difficult to stage the event in person, without compelling live performances, viewership could further erode.

SMI gets its ad sales data from invoices in the computer systems of most of the largest media buying agencies. ■

Tonight’s ESPY Awards show on ABC will look to ride the momentum of the return of live sports after an unprecedented shutdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, hosted by actor Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), will honor major sports achievements and salute the leading performers and performances. 

Last year’s June ESPYs event was held without a live audience and, with the lack of live sports events due to the pandemic, focused mostly on humanitarian issues. 

I recently spoke to ESPN Content SVP and Editor-At-Large Rob King about this year’s ESPYs presentation and how ESPN has had to navigate around the pandemic to produce its annual sports awards show. An edited version of the interview appears below. 

Picture This: How has ESPN adjusted to producing the ESPY Awards during an unprecedented time in sports due to the pandemic? 

Rob King: So we went from being in a theater of 5,000 people two years ago to having to do it all virtually last year. That was a struggle on a number of fronts: in some ways you had a bit of a captive audience in terms of athletes and performers who joined the show, but it was also trying to do a virtual show in the middle of a pretty dramatic shift in human history between the pandemic, a reckoning around race, and the early stages of an election cycle. Meanwhile, we didn't have live sports to watch or enjoy, so it felt wrong to hand out awards for best college basketball team when we didn't have an NCAA tournament or to offer a whole host of superlative awards for seasons that were stopped. So we had to shift course last year and really make it be about a celebration of heroism and courage at a time when everyone needed it. Now you flash forward to this year, and we’ve had sports return in a way that we have all needed. You've seen incredible performances around the world and fans have worked their way back into stadiums, so we have an opportunity to return to some of that celebratory feel around the performance of athletes.

Picture This: How will this year’s ESPYs look and feel different from last year?

RK: First let me say that we are not quite out of pandemic, so we've worked tirelessly to think of ways to start our way back to what we believe will be a full theater show next year by creating this safe environment where people can celebrate together. Logistically it meant that you’ll have 500 people instead of 5,000; it'll mean that we'll have folks socially distant, but with the ability to be with one another.

Picture This: Last year the ESPYs moved to Saturday night from Wednesday. Is Saturday an optimal night for the event in terms of reaching viewers?

RK: We’ll see. The Wednesday slot after the [Major League Baseball] All-Star game was chosen strategically because there isn’t anything else going on so you can be the only show in town. We just feel like we’re well situated this year based on the general excitement about the return of sports.

Picture This: What does host Anthony Mackie bring to the ESPYs?

RK: First of all, he is a genuine sports fan, and there have been so many moments of just pure joy working on this show because he really gets why a night like this matters. Secondly, working with Anthony Mackie has made me a lot cooler with my teenage kids -- I’m not saying that’s the only thing that matters, but it matters (laughing).

Picture This: Are you confident that this year’s ESPYs will resonate with viewers?

RK: I think so. I think producers of the show have done a fantastic job of making sure that some of those athletes that we just love, want to spend time with and celebrate will be present. We're going to have a bunch of moments that will be immediately viral and draw a lot of attention. It’s also a really big night in terms of sports across ESPN and ABC with the Wimbledon finals and UFC 264 with Conor McGregor, so I think our time on ABC from eight o’clock until 11 fits nicely into what's really going to be a pretty big day for sports fans.

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Commercials for the 93d annual Oscars telecast on Sunday are sold out, according to Disney Advertising Sales.

Behind the Super Bowl, the Oscars have historically one of the highest profile programs on TV and among the most attractive for advertisers.

According to Kantar, last year’s Academy Awards show drew $129 million in ad revenue, up from $114 million in 2019.  The Red Carpet pre-show generated another $21 million in 2020, up front $2 million the previous year.

The average 30-second spot during the awards show cost $2.15 million, up 9%.

But broadcast TV in general has been losing audiences in general and award show ratings have been getting smaller and smaller, despite the appeal of live events.

Last year’s Oscars--which aired before the start of the pandemic--drew a record-low audience of 23.6 million viewers. The Golden Globes, which aired Feb. 28 saw ratings drop more than 60% to 6.9 million on NBC.

Jerry Daniello, senior VP, Entertainment Brand Solutions at Disney Ad Sales said that trend hasn’t affected the allure of the Oscars.

“The advertisers and the brands that have been showing up every year continue to show up to launch new creative and use the Oscar platform for the reach and for the prestige and to be in that environment,” Daniello said. 

“A  lot of new brands have shown up in the Oscars for the first time and they're coming to the table with plenty of original creative that will launch on Sunday that's timely and relevant and inclusive. The rating projections are not necessarily affecting how clients are buying the Oscars, he added.

Audiences may have lost some interest in Hollywood during a year in which most people streamed even new films at home.

After a year in which theaters were largely empty, Disney has come up with a new format to promote new theatrical releases. 

In this year’s Oscars three celebrities from upcoming films will talk about their favorite movie theater experience and introduce their new film, which will lead into an exclusive, never before seen trailer. In past years, a separation was required between someone appearing in the broadcast and appearing in a commercial.

The three people featured are  Ariana DeBose, who plays Anita in the new version of West Side Story, drummer Questlove, who directed the upcoming documentary Summer of Soul, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who will appear in the movie version of his play In the Heights.

This year’s Oscar broadcast is three months later than last years, and Daniello said the extra time enabled Disney to secure these moments in the production.

Daniello said some of this year’s Oscar advertisers, like Target, which came in at the last minute, have done well during the pandemic. Others, like Expedia, are hoping to use the Oscars to get back to business as usual.

Sponsors of this year’s Oscars include Google, General Motors, Rolex and Verizon in the “proud” category.

Google is sponsoring audio descriptions of the telecast for the visually impaired for the first time. Closed captioning will be provided by VITAC, and the audio description will be provided by VITAC and Audio Eyes.

“Google is committed to making the world a more accessible place by working to ensure disabled people are represented in the stories we tell and the products we build,” says KR Liu, head of brand accessibility. “We are excited to do our part in making this year’s Oscars accessible for everyone by helping to make audio descriptions and captions available for viewers.”

During the show, Google will also run an ad that features the story of Google employee Tony Lee, a child of deaf parents, also called a CODA. The spot explores how his family communicates today with the help of Google products including Live Transcribe, Captions in Google Meet & Live Caption on Android and Chrome.

GM’s Cadillac is introducing its first electric crossover vehicle, the Lyric.

AARP; Accenture; Adidas International; Airbnb; Apartments.com; Apple; Corona; Disney Plus; Eli Lilly; Expedia; FreshPet; FX; Grey Goose (Bacardi); GSK; Honda; Kellogg; Keurig (Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar); Mars; P&G; Panera; Power to the Patient; Searchlight;  Starbucks, Subway; Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers as participating sponsors.

Disney also has local sponsors for the Oscars, including Mercedes-Benz, Resorts World, Spectrum and Virgin Hotels.

MTV said it will air a 90-minute end of year special honoring the greatest of the movies and TV shows it has given awards to over the years.

MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time will premiere Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. and will be hosted by Vanessa Hudgens. 

MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time will pay homage to the best of the best from the most beloved actors to scene stealing moments, MTV said. Hudgens will guide fans through irreverent award categories, memorable presentations and performances from today’s hottest stars. The night will also feature exclusive footage of the most anticipated 2021 releases. 

Performers and honorees will be announced later.

MTV also said  is eyeing an epic return next year with a weekend event takeover.  

MTV’s Bruce Gillmer, Wendy Plaut, and Vanessa Whitewolf with Den Of Thieves co-founder, Jesse Ignjatovic and Barb Bialkowski will serve as executive producers for the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time. Jackie Barba and Alicia Portugal are executives in charge of production. Lisa Lauricella serves as the music talent executive. 

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NBC’s telecast of The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards rated a 13 in households, with a 20 share, according to Nielsen. That’s up 3% in the local markets over last year’s telecast.

Ratings in the key demo come out later in the day.

USA Network was a big winner on the night, with Mr. Robot winning the Golden Globe for best drama, ahead of Game of Thrones, Narcos, Empire and Outlander, and Christian Slater taking best supporting actor in a drama for his role in that series. Amazon too won a pair, with Mozart in the Jungle winning best comedy and its star, Gael Garcia Bernal, for best actor in a comedy.
Frontier drama The Revenant cleaned up on the film side.

Host Ricky Gervais brought his brand of snarky wit to the proceedings.