Nischelle Turner on the Golden Globes’ Lack of Diversity

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You know, I mean, people were very upset that I will destroy you and the creator of that fantastic series did not get a look-in. How do you think that it will change and do you have confidence that it will at the Golden Globes?

NISCHELLE TURNER, HOST, “ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT”: You know, that’s a — it’s a really good question, Christiane. And you are right, Michaela Coel, was woefully overlooked. She deserved every nomination, every act like she could get, it’s a brilliant series that she’s doing. It’s groundbreaking. And they missed big time on that one. You know, I was talking about this earlier this morning how I don’t really understand how in 2021 you can look at a room that you are in and not see any diversity in that and not realize that something is amiss there. I am not really sure how you can do that. And you are also correct, with everything that the academy went through with the Oscars So White campaign, I can’t believe that the other organizations didn’t look within themselves, and before they were called out, and say, oh, you know what, we have an issue here, too, we need to change something. It was almost like it was just whatever. And, you know, in the early days when they were first getting some heat about this, they pushed back with, well, you know, 35 percent of our members are women. And so, they were throwing out some of the other numbers there, but the fact remains, they don’t have one African-American member in 87 people, and that is an issue especially when you want diverse voices, inclusive voice. And what they’ve always been thought of, the Hollywood Foreign Press in the past, is kind of zigging when other people zag. They may not have some of the nominations that we would think as are worthy. I mean, sometime you are like, oh, gosh, how did that slip in there with them? And so, people kind of laughed it off for a while. But I think in this time and space, when we are all trying to be better allies to whatever group, you know, that is out there, it was very tone deaf how they did not look inside of themselves. And after the Golden Globes, last night, Christiane, there was also — the times that movement also put out a strongly worded statement saying, you know, just saying what you said on that program isn’t enough. We don’t want to cover anything up. You have to be better. We will continue hold you to account. And I think that they will. Now, I will say in defense of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, while they did not have any African-American members in their rank and file, in their voting body, I do feel like there was a lot of diversity displayed in the winners last night. I think that across the board we saw a wide range and wide spectrum of people winning that really reflect this industry and reflect America. So, so on that front, I do think that there is change being made.