Netflix flexes muscles at virtual Golden Globes with 'Queen's Gambit', 'Crown' amid diversity flap

In a year tainted by the coronavirus pandemic, the show must go on — and the Golden Globes did just that on Sunday night, albeit virtually. Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal breaks it down.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. It's time for some Fame and Fortune with Ali Canal. Because last night, Ali, we had the Golden Globes. And, you know, it's such an honor just to be nominated. But you gotta tell me--

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Is that yours?

ADAM SHAPIRO: --the streaming giants positioned as frontrunning, heading into the Oscars, what can you tell us?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Oh my gosh. First of all, Adam, that's amazing. I did not know that. What a fun fact. But yeah, so the Golden Globes were last night, and it was a really big night for streamers, especially for Netflix. Netflix walked away with 10 Golden Globe wins. They did really well when it came to "The Queen's Gambit," as well as "The Crown." "The Queen's Gambit" won Best Mini Series. This is a category that's typically been dominated by HBO, but last night, we saw Netflix walk away with that win.

And then, for "The Crown," that won Best TV Series Drama. Other pertinent wins for Netflix included the late Chadwick Boseman winning best actor for his role in the Netflix film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." His wife accepted the award on his behalf, and it was a very emotional moment in the show. We also saw Aaron Sorkin win for Best Screenplay for the critically acclaimed, "The Trial of the Chicago Seven."

So, overall, a really great night for Netflix, but it was not the only streamer to have their moment in the spotlight. We also had Hulu, Disney, Amazon Prime Video having very important wins. Amazon Prime actually did really well with the new Borat sequel. That won them Best Motion Picture Comedy, which makes it the first streamer to ever win that award. Sacha Baron Cohen went on to win the Best Actor title for his role in the film. So Borat, who knew? It's a cult classic. And it did really well for Amazon Prime.

And then Apple TV Plus, that's usually one streamer that's struggled amidst these big streaming giants, but last night, we saw Jason Sudeikis go home with a Best Actor win for his role in "Ted Lasso." I personally have not seen this one yet, but people rave about it. They say it's a really, really good show, so I'll have to check that out. So even Apple TV Plus walking away with their very first Golden Globe.

But when it comes to that final award of the night-- the big one this is Best Motion Picture Drama-- that went to a more traditional film distributor with "Nomadland." That's from Searchlight Pictures. We also had Chloé Zhao winning Best Director. She's actually the first woman to win this award since 1984.

So, a very interesting night. It was a little bit of a, I don't want to say boring award show, but there weren't a lot of great moments. I think it's really hard to do that in a virtual setting. There were some technical difficulties here and there. There was a little bit of awkwardness, especially when people were giving their speeches, and they were playing music. It's like, they're not-- they can't walk off the stage. They're just going to end up sitting on their couch the entire time.

So I think we could see a little bit of that awkwardness play out when the Oscars airs on April 25th. They haven't released too much information about what that's going to look like, but I think we can expect it to be pretty similar to the Golden Globes, a little mix of in-person at certain locations, but the bulk of it being virtual. So we'll have to see what happens when the Oscars come on April 25th.

SEANA SMITH: Well, Ali, in the meantime, you have to check out "Ted Lasso" because I've seen a couple of episodes, and it is very, very good. It's a lighthearted, fun, short, little show that you could tune into very quickly.

But first, on a more serious note, though, we talked about this last week going into the awards night. There was an "LA Times" report talking about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. This is an issue, clearly not the first time. This is specifically talking about Hollywoods Foreign Press Association. It was addressed briefly on stage last night, but clearly, more needs to be done on this issue.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: A lot more needs to be done. And you're right, they did address it on stage. We had host Tina Fey and Amy Poehler mentioning it in their opening monologue. And then shortly thereafter, we did have three members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association come out on stage and basically say, listen, we know we have a lot more work to do here. We are going to start changes immediately. But it was a very brief moment.

And that was kind of it. We didn't really hear much after that. So hopefully, this is the start of greater change in Hollywood. And this is not just something that's affecting the Golden Globes. This is a deeper issue in Hollywood and really goes deeper into the ecosystem of Hollywood. Last year, we had the Oscars come out tweaking those eligibility requirements to promote more inclusivity. On Friday, we had Netflix releasing a first of its kind diversity report. They said that they will be pledging $100 million over the next five years to help bridge that diversity gap.

But the reality of the situation is that a lot of these very notable Black centric programs were completely shut out of the Golden Globe nominations. That includes "Insecure," "I May Destroy You," whereas other flashy titles like "Emily in Paris" did receive that nomination. So, you know, even Tina Fey said award shows, they're stupid. They don't mean anything, right?

But they do provide windows of opportunity. They do provide visibility. So right now, they are still important, and there's certainly a lot of work that Hollywood has to do to correct that injustice that sort of permeates throughout the industry and just be more culturally diverse.

ADAM SHAPIRO: OK, let's get to the gossip and the dirt. Who got snubbed, and what surprises were there?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: So in terms of the stubs, I was very intere-- it was very interesting last night, because "Mank" was the most nominated film for Netflix with six nominations, and it walked away completely empty-handed. So I always think that's funny. Like, why give this film so many nominations if you're not even going to give them one award?

In a similar vein, we also had "Promising Young Woman." Now that time is a bit of a surprise when they received all that love for the gold-- for their own Golden Globe nominations. But once again, they also walked away empty-handed. Many people thought Carey Mulligan could potentially win for Best Actress, but that did not happen.

In terms of surprises, I think Andra Day for "The United States versus Billie Holiday," that delivered Hulu's one and only win. And Andra Day actually became the first Black actress to win that award in 35 years. And she had some pretty stiff competition there with Oscar winner Viola Davis. So, congrats to her. She was amazing in that film. She has an amazing voice. You should absolutely go check that out.

And then another surprise was Rosamund Pike for winning Best Actress for the Netflix series, "I Care a Lot." You could tell on her face she just did not expect to win this award. And you saw that reflected, I think, in her acceptance speech as well. So those, to me, were some of the biggest snubs and surprises. Disney's "Hamilton the Musical," I think that had a lot of buzz and momentum entering this, but they also were completely shut out of the Golden Globes.

But I think at the end of the day here, a lot of the critics were going for "Borat" over Disney "Hamilton the Musical." And I always think that category is interesting anyway, because are you going to go the musical route, or are you going to do the comedy route? They're very different genres to me, but clearly, last night, they went the comedy route.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Ali Canal with Fame and Fortune, the other big surprise is these things make great doorstops if you need one.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: [INAUDIBLE]