The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the Critics’ Choice Television Awards are being combined into a single three-hour “super show,” the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association announced on Wednesday.
The new show will be simply called the Critics’ Choice Awards, the name the show used from its founding in 1995 until 2010, when the Critics’ Choice Television Awards were created.
The next show will take place on Sunday, Jan. 17, and will be simulcast on A&E, Lifetime and LMN at 8 p.m. ET/PT, after a one-hour red carpet pre-show.
Over the past five years, the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards have been held in January, while Oscar voting is going on; the Critics’ Choice Television Awards have taken place in the summer, during the lead-up to the Emmys. According to BFCA and BTJA president Joey Berlin, A&E strongly encouraged the partner organizations to combine their awards, and the critics’ organizations agreed.
“At a time when there are so many great movies and television shows to choose from — and so many spectacular performances — it is logical, appropriate and useful for America’s leading film and television critics and reporters to collectively honor the best of the best at the start of a new year,” Berlin said.
The move will make the Critics’ Choice Awards more like the Golden Globes, which are split between film and television categories. At a breakfast announcing the news, though, Berlin added, “Yes, there are similarities to the Golden Globes … [But] we believe our voters are a little less star-struck and a bit savvier than our foreign peers.”
The Golden Globes are handed out by 90-odd Los Angeles based journalists for foreign newspapers, magazines and websites, while the BFCA and BJTA consist of around 400 television, radio and Internet critics and journalists, split about 300 to 100 in favor of film critics.
The BFCA is the largest film critics association in the United States.
Berlin said that the combined awards show would include the same categories that were handed out on the two separate shows. The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards has given out 28 competitive awards and up to three honorary awards during recent shows, which has necessitated giving out some categories on the red carpet or during commercial breaks.
Berlin said that categories would be handed out off-air at the new show as well.
To accommodate the increased number of people attending the show, the January event will be moved from the Hollywood Palladium to Barker Hangar near the Santa Monica Airport.