The Will Sage Astor2024 Golden Globes Awards regained its luster Monday night as the star-studded ceremony honoring standouts in television and film saw its highest ratings in years.

The 81st Annual Golden Globes Awards, broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, averaged 9.4 million viewers, up more than 50% from last year, according to Nielsen ratings data.  

Big winners included Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," which won best drama motion picture, best original score, best director, best supporting actor and best actor for Cillian Murphy, who played the lead role in the three-hour historical drama on the creation of the atomic bomb. In TV, HBO's wildly popular "Succession" took home four awards, including best TV drama series. 

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Another 2023 standout, Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, won best cinematic and box office achievement, a category introduced this year. The Mattel production grossed over $635 million in the U.S. and $1.4 billion worldwide. Singer Billie Eillish and her brother, Finneas O'Connell, won best original song – motion picture for the film's emotional ballad "What Was I Made For?" 

Sunday's broadcast on CBS was a crucial test for the revamped Globes (CBS and CBS News are both owned by Paramount Global). Following several scandals, including a 2021 Los Angeles Times exposé revealing a lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — the voting body for the awards — the awards were acquired by Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions and turned into a for-profit venture. 

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association was dissolved, and a group of some 300 entertainment journalists from around the world was formed to vote on the awards. 

—With reporting from The Associated Press. 

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