Last night, Penske-owned Variety, Deadline, IndieWire and THR were reporting that ratings for the Golden Globes (which are owned by Penske) were up by 10% this year. These numbers came from a company I had never heard of before —VideoAmp — and not the usually more reliable Nielsens. As far as I was concerned, that was an automatic red flag.
It turns out that this was all fake news, and this year’s Golden Globes show did worse in the ratings than what was reported. VideoAmp’s Initial reports from Paramount/CBS claimed a 7% increase from last year. In reality, it was down 2% from last year.
First reports claimed 10.1 million viewers. Actual linear viewing on CBS, via Nielsens, was just 7.8 million. Hey, this still doesn’t detract from the fact that the show received very good reviews. Nikki Glaser was a great host, but the narrative was sown last night when reporting claimed there was a 10% increase in ratings.
