Globes Replaced With Nominee Interview Show

Apparently there will be stars on NBC Sunday night. They just won't be at the Golden Globes.

Since the news conference announcing the winners will take one hour, NBC is filling the other two hours originally scheduled for the Globes with a "Dateline" special.

To compensate for the lack of a traditional ceremony which was canceled due to the Writers Guild of America strike, "Today" show co-host Matt Lauer will be interviewing several Golden Globe nominees.

Lauer's nominee interviews will include, among others, James McAvoy ("Atonement"), Sally Field ("Brothers and Sisters"), Amy Adams ("Enchanted"), Nikki Blonsky ("Hairspray") and Patricia Arquette ("Medium").

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Monday that the recipients of Golden Globe Awards in all be 25 categories will be revealed during an hour-long HFPA press conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, starting at 6 p.m. PST.

"We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007's outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television," said HFPA President Jorge Camara in a statement. "We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year’s Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled."

The Globes' demise came when the Screen Actors Guild announced that its membership unanimously decided not to cross WGA picket lines to attend the ceremony.

The revamped Golden Globes broadcast will be the second awards show in a week to be affected by the strike, which began in early November. On Tuesday, CBS aired the People's Choice Awards with taped acceptance speeches by the stars.

But, according to Nielsen Media Research figures, the PCAs lost nearly half of its viewing audience from last year.

Nielsen estimated that the show was watched by 6 million viewers, as opposed to 11.3 million last year.

The next potential casualty of the writers strike is the Oscars, since the WGA has already said it will not grant a waiver to allow the writers to work on the show.

But unlike the Globes and PCAs, the Oscar show will go on as planned on Feb. 24, producer Gil Cates said.

"We are going to do it," Cates said. "I can't elaborate on how we're going to do it, because I don't want anybody to deal with the elaboration in a way that might impact its success."

One awards ceremony guaranteed to be attended by the stars is the SAG Awards on Jan. 27, since the guild obtained a waiver from the WGA.