Award season usually brings a mix of celebration and reflection. For many viewers, the most poignant part of these star-studded evenings is the "In Memoriam" segment, where the industry pauses to honor legends who have left us.
However, fans watching the 78th Golden Globe Awards might have noticed a glaring omission. Despite the heartbreaking losses of icons like Chadwick Boseman, Cicely Tyson, Kirk Douglas, and Sean Connery between 2020 and 2021, the broadcast didn’t feature a dedicated tribute reel.
This wasn't a one-time oversight. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group behind the Globes, has actually avoided this tradition for years. While other major ceremonies lean into the nostalgia of a memorial slideshow, this specific show follows a different set of rules for its broadcast.
A Longstanding Golden Globes Policy
Instagram | chadwickboseman | The 78th Golden Globes skipped a traditional "In Memoriam" reel despite major celebrity losses.
The decision to skip a tribute segment comes down to the unique structure of the show and a bit of a "turf war" regarding award show traditions. Because the Golden Globes honor both the film and television industries, the list of potential honorees is massive, including everyone, which would take up a significant portion of the broadcast, leading to difficult choices about who makes the cut and who doesn't.
Golden Globes producer Barry Adelman shed light on this stance during a conversation with People. He explained the reasoning clearly:
"We have not done an 'In Memoriam' on the Golden Globes. Those things are handled really well by the Oscars and the Screen Actors Guild."
The producers generally feel that since the Academy Awards and the SAG Awards already dedicate significant time to these tributes, the Globes can focus on the party atmosphere of the current year’s winners.
Ricky Gervais Addressed It Onstage
Beyond just time constraints, the show's leadership has occasionally used humor—or social commentary—to explain the absence of these segments. During the 2020 ceremony, host Ricky Gervais poked fun at the decision in his typical biting style. He suggested that a planned segment was scrapped because the list lacked diversity, saying:
"We were going to do an In Memoriam this year, but when I saw the list of people who died, it wasn't diverse enough. It was mostly white people, and I thought, 'Nah, not on my watch.'"
While Gervais was clearly playing his usual role of the provocateur, his comments highlighted the internal debates that often surround who gets recognized on a global stage.
When the Rules Were Broken
Instagram | @robertdnorris | The Golden Globes broke its "no tribute" rule in 2017 to honor Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.
Even with a strict policy in place, some losses are too massive to ignore. The 2017 ceremony provided a rare exception to the "no tribute" rule.
Just weeks before the show, Hollywood lost two of its most beloved stars in a single weekend. Carrie Fisher, famous for her role in "Star Wars", passed away from a heart attack, and her mother, the legendary Debbie Reynolds of "Singin' in the Rain" fame, died of a stroke just 24 hours later.
The sudden loss of this mother-daughter duo shocked the world. In response, the producers put together an unprecedented montage to honor their legacies. Barry Adelman noted at the time that while they usually stay away from memorials, "special circumstances of very recent nature" sometimes require a change in plans.
The absence of a tribute doesn’t mean the industry isn’t mourning. The Golden Globes choose to focus on a faster-paced, celebration-driven format, leaving memorials to the Oscars and SAG Awards. While viewers may still miss seeing their favorite stars honored on screen, the ceremony continues to prioritize the live energy of the winners in the room.