EVERYBODY'S A WINNER!

By Richard Zoglin

FOR CONNOISSEURS OF TV AWARDS shows, the three-hour Golden Globes special on NBC last week had a kind of maddening purity. No splashy production numbers; no boring humanitarian awards for 80-year-old studio executives; not even a host to kick off the evening. Just the opening credits and--bam!--awards, awards, awards.

The nominees, stars from both movies and television, nearly all showed up, sitting at crowded banquet tables in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. And unlike the Oscars and Tonys, the orchestra did not (most of the time) spoil the party by cutting short the acceptance speeches; at the Golden Globes, everybody gets to thank everybody. Sharon Stone, a Best Actress winner for Casino, spent a full three minutes thanking her co-stars, director, several Universal executives, her parents, publicist, hair and makeup people and "the girls at Chaos [her production company]: Paulette, Mindy and Kristen." Backstage with Dick Clark, she had more: "I forgot to mention Nick Pileggi!"

The Golden Globes' well-rated return to network TV (after years on cable and syndication) was something of a milestone in TV's awards-show mania. Little more than a decade ago, the big four--the Oscars, Tonys, Emmys and Grammys--pretty much had the field to themselves. Now it seems as though every Hollywood interest group, craft union and country-music association has its own awards--and a TV special to trumpet them. More than 30 awards shows will be seen on national TV this year, and the high season is just beginning: 10 of them will be crowded into the eight weeks between now and the Academy Awards telecast on March 25.

The statuettes keep piling up, no doubt a boon to the electroplating industry. For viewers who think the Oscars are too elitist, there's the People's Choice Awards, chosen by a Gallup poll of moviegoers. For those who find the Oscars too mainstream, there's the Independent Spirit Awards, recognizing films made outside the studio system. The Screen Actors Guild has its own televised awards show, and so does the Blockbuster video/music chain. There are awards for sports stars (the ESPYS), for outstanding African Americans (the Essence Awards) and for well-dressed rock musicians (VH1's Fashion & Music Awards). There are even awards for giving awards: Ellen DeGeneres was named Funniest Female Performer in a Television Special at last year's American Comedy Awards--for her performance at the previous year's Emmys.

One reason for their popularity is that awards shows are filling a gap left by the old TV variety shows. With Ed Sullivan, Danny Kaye, Dean Martin and their ilk gone, awards galas are pretty much the only place in prime time where viewers can see splashy musical numbers, stars being "themselves" in a relatively spontaneous setting--and a (dubious) picture of show business as one big happy family. These shows can also be fun. "It's the only live thing on television where you'll see the unexpected," says Dick Clark. "People wait to see somebody's dress fall down, a stumble, a bumble, a faux pas. That's the sadistic part of all of us." Clark has his own sadistic streak: he's the producer of no fewer than six awards shows, including the Golden Globes, this week's American Music Awards on abc and the Academy of Country Music Awards, airing in April on NBC.

Awards shows reflect Americans' obsession with competition and picking winners, as well as, perhaps, a latent Puritan streak. Awards help legitimize frivolous pleasures: those movies, records and TV shows we enjoy all year aren't just time-wasting entertainment; they are the best of their kind, worth being commemorated for posterity.

Mostly, though, awards shows are examples of Hollywood's gift for self-promotion. Every nominated star, every film clip shown on an awards program, every self-indulgent acceptance speech is another ad for a product fighting for attention in the crowded marketplace.

It hardly matters who gives the awards. The 53-year-old Golden Globes are gaining respectability, not just as a harbinger of the Oscars but as an honor in their own right. Check out the movie ads in your local paper and see how many films tout their Golden Globe victories. Never mind that the winners are chosen by a grand total of 86 people, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who have been accused of being swayed by aggressive p.r. campaigns. "We're trying to commit to very high professional conduct as professional journalists," says Ray Arco, who covers Hollywood for Bucharest Match, among other magazines in his native Romania. "There have been some ups and downs, like any organization, with good apples and bad apples sometimes. Now there are very good apples."

Some of the newer awards shows have gained big followings. The Video Music Awards on mtv regularly bring that cable channel its largest audience of the year. The Daytime Emmys were once a minor afternoon diversion; moved to prime time in 1991, they now draw more viewers than typically watch any of the soap operas honored.

But the glut of awards shows is starting to take its toll. Ratings for the Grammy Awards on cbs have dropped 39% in the past two years, largely owing to competition from the American Music Awards (created by ABC in 1974 after it lost the Grammys to cbs) and the Billboard Music Awards. "There are too many awards shows right now, and they've lost some of their uniqueness," says Bob Bain, vice president of specials for Fox. "We've reached the ceiling." And not a moment too soon: among the proposals that Bain has rejected are the Under-18 Awards, the Geriatric Awards and the Left-Handed Awards. ("The envelope please--no, the other hand.")

Standing largely above the fray is the Oscar telecast, which remains one of TV's most watched shows every year. Yet even the granddaddy of awards shows is being nibbled at by newcomers. Says Bruce Davis, executive director of the Motion Picture Academy: "If we get to a point where there are 10 or 15 sets of movie awards in the first three months of each year, we shouldn't be surprised to see audiences get a little less breathless about men in tuxedos." Even worse, if Sharon Stone gets nominated for an Oscar, will she have anyone left to thank?

--Reported by Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles