Apple Failed to Score Any Awards and Was Chastised by Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes

Last month Apple’s The Morning Show made television awards history by being the first-ever streaming show to be nominated for not one, but two Golden Globe awards before its first season had even come to an end. With such an honour, however, it was probably hoping too much for the debut show on Apple’s new streaming service to actually walk away with a win.

Specifically, Apple actually received three nominations for two awards: The Morning Show itself was nominated for Best Television Series in the drama category, while both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon were both nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series drama.

Other contenders for the best dramatic television series included HBO’s Big Little Lies, Netflix’s The Crown, BBC America’s Killing Eve, and HBO’s Succession. It was the last of these, Succession that took away the award.

For the best actress in a drama series, both Aniston and Witherspoon got beat out by Olivia Colman for her role in Netflix’s The Crown. The other two contenders for that one were Jodie Comer of Killing Eve and Nicole Kidman from Big Little Lies.

A Not-So-Honourable Mention

However, The Morning Show did earn some positive, albeit double-edged praise from the host of the evening’s festivities, comedian Ricky Gervais, who described the show as “a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing” before turning that around to sharply criticize Apple’s labour practices by adding, “made by a company that runs sweatshops in China.”

Tim Cook was in attendance at the event last night in support of The Morning Show, which made the comments seem even more pointed — especially as the camera cut to him to capture his reaction to the initial compliment. However, Gervais’ ire wasn’t directed so much at the big tech and media companies as the Hollywood producers, writers, and actors who work with those companies, basically calling them out as hypocrites for getting into bed with the likes of not only Apple, but also Amazon and Disney.

Apple rolled into the TV game with “The Morning Show,” a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a company that runs sweatshops in China. So, you say you’re woke, but the companies you work for, I mean, unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service, you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?

Netflix Didn’t Fare Much Better

It would have been a pretty big upset had Apple actually walked away with any Golden Globes this early in the game, so what was perhaps even more surprising was that favoured son Netflix, which had received 34 nominations and was widely expected to clean up at the awards, actually ended up being virtually shut out.

Gervais even shared this initial expectation about Netflix’s success during his comments early on in the show, when he said, “Everyone is watching Netflix. This show should just be me coming out going: ‘Well done, Netflix. You win everything tonight.’”

The reality, however, was significantly different, with Netflix only coming away with two wins out of its 34 nominations; Laura Dern received an award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Marriage Story, and of course Olivia Coleman received the aforementioned Best Actress in a Drama Series award for The Crown, beating out both of Apple’s nominations for The Morning Show, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. However, other Netflix high-profile titles like The Irishman, which were widely expected to win in at least some categories, didn’t take away any awards at all.

In general, however, it looks like streaming simply didn’t dominate the way many expected it would. Hulu, which was the only other big streaming contender, also only took away two awards, while the rest basically went to more traditional studios like Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, and HBO. Even Disney found itself shut out of the animation category completely, despite receiving three nominations, which some are reading as an indictment of its entry into the streaming market with its Disney+ service.

There’s More To Come

The Golden Globes are only the beginning of the awards season, however. Apple’s The Morning Show has also received three Screen Actors’ Guild award nominations, with both Steve Carell and Billy Crudup up for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Jennifer Aniston nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series.

In the male actor category, Carell and Crudup will be vying with Sterling K. Brown of This is Us, Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones, and David Harbour of Stranger Things, while Aniston faces some of the same contenders from the Golden Globe awards; Olivia Colman of Netflix’s The Crown is also joined byHelena Bonham Carter, plus Jodie Comer of Killing Eve (BBC America), and Elisabeth Moss of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

The SAG Awards are scheduled to be held on Sunday, January 19, 2020.