Amazon Continues To Dominate Netflix And Hulu At The Golden Globes

The Golden Globes is a weird awards show. It’s supposed to set the taste bar for next year’s long and exhausting awards narrative, but it’s also more mainstream-friendly than any other awards show. It’s important, but not part of the all-powerful EGOT. But there’s one company that is uniquely dialed in to exactly what the Globes are looking for — Prime Video. And this year they’re walking away with the second most nominations of any network or streaming service.

Amazon will be strolling into the 76th Golden Globes with nine nominations altogether, three a piece for its sci-fi thriller Homecoming, the ever charming comedian comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and the BBC and Amazon miniseries collaboration A Very English Scandal. The only networks on Amazon’s impressive level are the awards show kings, FX and HBO. This year’s heavyweight FX has 10 nominations, and HBO reeled in 9 noms (same as Amazon). That makes Amazon Prime Video one of the big dogs this awards season, which they’re entering with more nominations than Netflix, Showtime, and Hulu (not to mention all of the broadcast TV networks combined!). But when you look at Amazon’s history at the Globes, its frontrunner status is hardly surprising.

Netflix’s House of Cards is often thought of as the grandfather of prestige streaming content. After all the political drama was the first streaming original to receive a major awards nomination in 2013. But though Netflix opened the awards show doors it was Amazon that sealed the deal. During the 72nd Golden Globes, Amazon’s insightful sad-com Transparent became the first streaming show to win in the Best Series category. Not only that but that year saw Jeffery Tambor win the Golden Globe for Best Performance in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy. Prime Video won both of the categories it was nominated for in its first year at the Globes, but it was far from done.

The following year brought with it two more nominations for Transparent as well as an in-network upset. Mozart in the Jungle, Amazon’s composer comedy, took home both of the awards Transparent had just claimed as its own: Best Series — Musical or Comedy and Gael Garciá Bernal for Best Performance in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy. Transparent may have been empty-handed this year but Prime Video won five of its nominations while gaining the distinct pleasure of having multiple nominations in the same category.

And then came Manchester By the Sea. The 74th Golden Globes was the only time Amazon received more nominations than what they’ve received for next year’s ceremony. Both Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle saw two nominations a piece. The streaming service’s legal drama Goliath shook up the season immensely with Billy Bob Thornton taking home Best Performance in a Television Series — Drama. But it was Manchester By the Sea‘s five nominations and Casey Affleck’s win for Best Performance in a Motion Picture — Drama that changed the streaming landscape. Now Amazon wasn’t just the first streaming service to win a major award in television. It was the first streaming company to make a dent in the ever-competitive film landscape.

Last year saw Amazon dominate the Globes comedy scene again with two nominations and wins for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Much like Transparent before it, Maisel left the 2018 awards season as the expected new ruler of the genre. That year even saw a nomination shoutout to one of Amazon’s smallest shows — I Love Dick.

All of the strides Prime Video has taken speaks to something that makes the streaming giant uniquely great. Not only is it able to create consistently great originals, something Hulu struggles with, but it’s also been overcoming one of Netflix’s biggest weaknesses — successfully supporting its lesser known shows. Compared to Netflix or even HBO, Amazon doesn’t have many originals. It has a handful of well-crafted shows, even fewer and more selective films. But what the streaming service does have is a fine-tuned Golden Globes strategy. Since Prime Video was first nominated for a Globe in 2015, the streaming service has received 29 nominations. During that same period Amazon has received eight wins, two of which will go down in history as the first time a streaming service has earned a major film and television award.

This is without touching on how incredibly well supported Amazon’s lesser known series have been. As impressive and deserved as Transparent and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s wins were, they were never surprising. Both series were critically hailed as being the best comedies of their respective years. But the same critical fervor can’t be said about shows like Goliath, I Love Dick, or A Very English Scandal. Even better known shows like Mozart in the Jungle and Homecoming teeter on the edge of being secret streaming gems. Netflix has easily a dozen shows living in this realm between critically-praised and relatively unknown, but only Amazon seems to be getting nominations.

Of course Amazon isn’t without its share of problems. Its Golden Globes success hasn’t been replicated at the Emmys or Oscars, and its stars Jeffrey Tambor and Casey Affleck have had sexual misconduct accusations made against them. Tambor’s even led to his firing from Transparent. But Amazon is the first streaming service that’s managed to both gain major awards wins and support its lesser known projects in much the same way cable has for years. In 2015 it proved that a streaming service could break through the mold and produce a program worthy of a Best Series win. Three years later it’s proving it’s possible for a streaming giant to produce consistently great content without getting lost in its own library.