The nominations for the Golden Globe Awards 2023 were announced yesterday; and they threw up a stunning surprise — top streamer Prime Video failed to open its account in the list of nominations. Yes, in the long list of nominations, both for series and films, not even a single Prime Video title was nominated in any of the categories – not ‘The Boys’; not ‘My Policeman’; and—gasp—no ‘The Rings Of Power’ either. It was a snub of colossal proportions!
Prime Video’s flop show at the Golden Globes nominations becomes all the more glaring in light of the fact that all popular streaming platforms garnered a sizeable number of nominations this year. Netflix, Prime Video’s main rival in the streaming wars, grabbed 14 nominations, as did HBO Max. Hulu and Apple TV Plus turned in spectacular numbers too. Smaller streamers like Peacock TV and Paramount Plus got nominations too, which makes Prime Video’s omission even more galling.
Worse, Prime Video’s celebrated, much-talked-about, most expensive show in the world, fantasy series ‘The Rings Of Power’ did not make the cut in even a single category. Main rival, HBO’s ‘House Of The Dragon’ grabbed two nominations in the meanwhile – Best Drama Series, and Best Actress for Emma D’Arcy.
Prime Video has been notoriously secretive about the viewing numbers of ‘The Rings Of Power‘, maintaining a deafening silence on the issue. It has time and again skirted the issue of numbers, revealing only one metric consistently – its claim that the first two episodes of ‘The Rings Of Power’ were streamed by 25 million global viewers in the first 24 hours. Contrary to Prime Video’s claims of streaming success for ‘The Rings Of Power’, industry trackers have been voluble on the fact that viewership for the remaining episodes of the series dropped drastically every subsequent week.
The no-show at the Golden Globes nominations by Prime Video and its celebrated series ‘The Rings Of Power’ must most certainly be a matter of consternation for the streamer. It’s a significant hint to the platform to pull up its socks in the programming department.
That, or face oblivion in the increasingly competitive environment of the streaming industry.