In the hottest Hollywood domino to drop from the Omicron surge — and the hottest bump in this year’s upended and dispirited awards year — the Critics Alternative Assn. announced Wednesday it is postponing the 27th Critics Preference Awards, which had been scheduled to be held in person on Jan. 9.
No new date has been set for the telecast, which is set to air on The CW and TBS.
“After considerate thought and candid conversations with our associates at The CW and TBS, we have collectively come to the summary that the prudent and accountable determination at this level is to postpone the 27th Once-a-year Critics Preference Awards, initially slated for January 9, 2022,” the business stated in a assertion. “We are in continuous communication with L.A. County Well being Officials, and we are currently working diligently to discover a new date throughout the forthcoming awards time in which to host our annual gala in-man or woman with everyone’s protection and well being remaining our prime priority. We will be sharing extra particulars with our good friends and colleagues in the course of the entertainment marketplace as shortly as we can.”
The shift marks a setback for the Critics Decision Assn. in its work to dethrone the Hollywood Overseas Push Assn., which palms out the Golden Globes, as the arbiters of awards season’s guide-off occasion.
The Critics Selection Awards has lengthy struggled to crack out of its also-ran standing, bouncing all around a variety of networks and pulling in reasonably little rankings. When NBC declared in May possibly it was pulling the Golden Globes off the air this 12 months subsequent months of controversy sparked by a Periods investigation, CCA main executive Joey Berlin observed a opportunity to satisfy his very long-held dream of claiming its place kicking off the awards season.
In shorter get, Berlin pounced on the Globes’ Jan. 9 date and relocated the present from its longtime property in Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar to the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel. “I just really feel this sort of a solid wind at our back again,” Berlin explained to The Occasions in July.
Even as Berlin tried using to capitalize on the Globes’ absence, however, a Occasions tale released previously this month uncovered that he and his approximately 500-member firm have been dogged by some of the exact same problems — including inquiries over credibility, governance and potential conflicts of curiosity — that have lengthy plagued the Hollywood International Push Assn.
Just two days back, the Critics Option Assn. had vowed it was pressing in advance with the Jan. 9 clearly show. But as considerations continue on to rise about the Omicron variant, touching off a wave of cancellations, these ideas clearly proved untenable. Before Wednesday, the Academy of Movement Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it is postponing the Governor Awards, which experienced been slated for Jan. 15, to a nevertheless-to-be-determined day.