Why Was The Golden Globe Trophy Redesigned? To Make It Easier To Hold!

It appears that award shows are trying everything they can as after audience hit all-time lows for both the Emmys and the Oscars in 2018. For the 76th Golden Globe awards, rather than just swapping out the hosts, even the trophies will be new.

You might have noticed that the Golden Globe award looks a bit like a middle school soccer trophy. It’s got a blocky base, making it very difficult to hold for pictures without obscuring the Golden Globe itself. This year’s award will combat that. In a new, ergonomic design, statues that will be handed out on Sunday will be bigger, heavier and much more photogenic. A new cylindrical base was designed “to ensure that winners do not obstruct the Golden Globe when holding the award,” according to an announcement by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Friday. Also, the HFPA logo was made more prominent on the redesign.

This isn’t the first time the Golden Globe trophy has been reworked. Though first created in 1944, the one mainstay has been the globe on top of the award. The most recent redesign was for the 2009 award show.

This year, the R/GA produced design will be all-gold, 11.5-inches tall with a base width of 3.75 inches and weighing in at 7.8 pounds. It will be composed of zinc, brass and bronze. Then, it’ll be topped off with a 24-karat brushed gold finish.

Compare that to just last year’s design, which was 10.75 inches tall with a base width of 3.5 inches. It also weighed 2.3 pounds less.

Marble versions of the design will be produced for the Cecil B. DeMille and Carol Burnett lifetime achievement awards.

The most interesting part of the redesign might be what you can’t see. Each of the new Golden Globe trophies will include an NFC tag for authenticity. That means that, with the new technological feature, each trophy will include information like the name of the winner, the category and the year in which it was won.

The 2019 Golden Globes will air on January 6. Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh will host the show.