NBC’s Golden Globes ratings are static, and brickbats fly for host Ricky Gervais

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If the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. is looking for another reason to bag Ricky Gervais as Golden Globes host, it will be tough to use the ratings as an excuse: The program’s numbers were even with last year, when he also hosted.

The three-hour presentation of the 68th Golden Globes drew 17 million total viewers, the same as last year, according to early numbers from the Nielsen Co. As it did last year, NBC carried the event live across the nation; in Los Angeles, the 5 p.m. live airing was followed by an 8 p.m. repeat.

However, the program did dip 5% in the key category of adults ages 18 to 49, to a 5.2 rating.

Gervais, the British creator of ‘The Office’ franchise, has a reputation for off-color humor and for zinging Hollywood insiders, but this time he drew brickbats from attendees even before the event was over. A joke about closeted gay actors drew groans from the room. Later, after the host quipped that he had to help the leader of the HFPA off the toilet and put his teeth in, an unamused-looking Philip Berk appeared onstage and suggested that Gervais could find someone else to help his films qualify for Globes consideration.

What did you think of Gervais and the Globes?

-- Scott Collins
twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT