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The Golden Globes will be returning in 2009, on January 11th to be precise. This was announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association this past Tuesday. Nominees will be announced on December 11, 2008. It will be broadcast by NBC from the Beverly Hilton.

The awards show used to be shown in late January, but after the rescheduling of the Academy Awards in 2004, the date was bumped up to compensate. The Golden Globes are not expect to affect the Academy Awards outcome since the judges for the Oscars are to have mailed in their ballots by the time the Golden Globes are broadcast.

Having adopted a "magazine" format to the 2008 show due to the WGA Strike, the show suffered a serious drop in ratings. They couldn't even have a red carpet event before the show to put the celebrities on display. Most likely, the 2009 broadcast will return to the traditional format and a bump in the ratings.

So Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell got promoted from commenting in the Golden Globe post-show to hosting the entire show and presenting all the awards (actually recapping the winners since apparently the Hollywood Foreign Press Association did so earlier in a press conference covered by E! and TV Guide Channel). So not only does NBC not have an awards show, but they don't even get first dibs on announcing the winners.

First of all, does Billy Bush always wear his hair like that or did he leave his roof down in the convertible with his hair wet and gelled? It looks like a slicked back mullet, and that's not a look just anyone can pull off. In fact, no one can pull off that look. But it may have actually been a better choice than the brown suit. Sadly, though, the suit and hair was the least of the problems with last night's one hour Golden Globe "extravaganza."

Tonight, in a lavish press conference, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the winners of the 2008 Golden Globes. Here are the winners in the major TV categories:

Best TV series, comedy: Extras, HBO

Best TV series, Drama: Mad Men, AMC

Best actor, TV series, comedy: David Duchovny, Californication

Best actress, TV series, comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Of all the award ceremonies on television, the Golden Globes is probably the only one I liked watching through to the end. When you mix the stars with a sit-down dinner with booze, some of them then having to make speeches -- what's not to like?

As if lack of a huge ceremony would stop us from chiming in with our own choices in the television categories. Continue on below to see some of our writers' thoughts on the nominees, their picks for winners and some polls for you to voice your own choices.

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Feel free to click through all our predictions. To begin, just click "see our predictions," below.

Alternatively, click on the box for each award and read the posts in the order you choose. Enjoy!

It's a shame that the Golden Globes ceremony was cancelled in a year when so many talented comedic actresses received nominations. For the first time since 2004, the category of Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy includes none of the Desperate Housewives cast. The housewives have dominated the category over the past few years, and their absence has made room for some fresh faces in 2008.

I couldn't be happier that this category looks more competitive than ever. The fact that I had so much trouble predicting a winner is a very good sign. I'm also pleased that each nominee represents a different style of comedy--and there's not a cranky suburban wife or over-the-top diva to be found. The five characters that these ladies play are likeable, genuine, and hilarious.

This feels weird. Normally, there is a good bit of excitement around the nominees of the Golden Globes, particularly since it's the first big award ceremony of the year and a precursor to the Academy and Emmy awards. However, with the WGA strike in full swing, and the awards ceremony stripped down to a simple one-hour press conference televised by NBC, it all seems a bit anti-climatic.

But, taking a page from my heroes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, I shall press on in true television reporting style and present my prediction for winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy.

The media can spin the death of the sitcom all they want. I'll even give them that the traditional multi-camera format that Lucy and Desi founded does seem to be dying a slow death, but comedy itself is alive and well on television. Ever since Ally McBeal stretched the definition of television comedy by daring to be nominated in comedic categories despite being an hour long "drama" (don't you know that dramas are one hour and comedies 30 minutes; it's the only way to tell the difference), the "sitcom" has morphed into the "comedy."

Almost gone is that multi-camera stage set and the live/canned studio audience. Instead we have shows that are filmed just like their dramatic counterparts that happen to be funny. And all of this year's Globe nominees for best musical or comedy TV series fit into this category (sorry According to Jim, maybe next year). Check 'em out after the jump, along with our picks for who should win!

I think it's reminiscent of "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" What if they gave out Golden Globes and no one was there to walk down the red carpet? Perhaps I'm just a cynical so-and-so, but I think the ceremony is as much a part of it all as are the actual trophies, perhaps even more important to many in the industry. It's their chance to shine, to glow, to wear nifty trend-setting gowns. Hey, it's Hollywood. It's the chance for those behind the scenes to take the stage if but only for a minute or two.

Due to the WGA strike, there will be no ceremony this year as the actors show their solidarity with the writers. Ah, but it's the industry -- the show must go on even if the show can't go on. The Golden Globe winners will be announced in a news conference sort of setting. Hmm. I think I'll just read about it all online. Let's forget the drama about no awards show and get into the nominees for Best Television Series, Drama!

Another score for the writers! Apparent, the People's Choice Awards, which changed format from last year due to the WGA Strike, bombed in the ratings.

The new format involved a pre-taped show hosted by Queen Latifah. Each of the awards were given in advance to each of the winners and the acceptance speeches were pre-taped, magazine-style. There was no red carpet and no live speeches.

The ratings decreased from 11.3 million viewers in 2007 to a scant 6 million viewers in 2008. This does not bode well for the Golden Globes or the Oscars. In anticipation of low ratings, NBC is already offering some advertisers cash back for the Golden Globes.

Well, we all knew it was going to happen -- we were just waiting for the proverbial foot covering to plummet: the Golden Globes award ceremony has been canceled. No red carpet interviews, no pithy conversations between television and movie stars, no close-ups of actors or actresses laughing at jokes that really aren't that funny but seem totally hilarious after a few appletinis.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, along with NBC decided to scrap the ceremony after a boycott threat from representatives of the Screen Actors Guild. Rather than have an empty auditorium, all parties agreed to adopt another approach to the ceremony -- a extremely less glamorous one hour news conference where the award recipients will be named (to be aired at the same time the original show was to be broadcast).

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today, on TV Squad Daily:

• Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel will guest on each other's shows this week, and the WGA is threatening disciplinary action against Leno for writing his own jokes and performing a monologue.
  
• Dr. Phil isn't helping anything. (Update: later in the day today, Dr. Phil canceled the Britney Spears episode of his show for tomorrow...)
  
• It's looking more and more like you won't be seeing the the Golden Globes on TV this year.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

According to Yahoo, the Golden Globe Awards looked a little less like as the Screen Actors Guild has stated that nearly all of its members refuse to cross the WGA Strike picket line. This makes it all the more important for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to obtain an independent deal with the WGA before the awards show is broadcast.

As previously reported on TV Squad, the HFPA was hoping to get an interim agreement with the WGA, similar to the one David Letterman and his production company Worldwide Pants obtained to continue The Late Show and The Late, Late Show with writers.

According to Reuters, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is in talks with the WGA to allow the Golden Globe Awards to be broadcast as planned. They are trying to get an "interim agreement" such as the one negotiated by David Letterman's company Worldwide Pants.

Letterman's agreement does pave the way for individual organizations to directly negotiate with the WGA. Since the Golden Globes are Hollywood's second biggest self-aggrandizing party (the Oscars being the first), it's easy to see how such an agreement would benefit both sides.

The Golden Globes (airing January 13) and Oscars (February 24) sought waivers to allow union writers to help put together their awards shows, but Reuters tells us that the WGA says it will deny those waivers. Show organizers say they will go on regardless. As for what to do for scribes, Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said "There are any number of possible options we might explore" regarding what the Oscars intend.

One possibility is to hire non-union writers. How pissed would the WGA be if the reviews were great, the jokes actually funny and the telecast considered to be the best Academy Awards show ever! Another possibility, and I have no idea why this hasn't been explored seriously already, is the Family Guy manatee writers. South Park showed how prolific they were, and there are simply tons of lame award show jokes that could be written on balls and thrown in the tank. Or do you think they're members of the union, too?

It was NBC's turn today to announce what its winter schedule would look like. The press release states that "NBC's first-quarter primetime schedule is slated to deliver significantly more hours of original programming than was ever the case in the first quarter of 2007." Besides the expected crop of reality and game shows, NBC's winter schedule will be filled with new episodes of series like ER, Friday Night Lights, Las Vegas, Medium, Scrubs and all three versions of Law & Order. Also added to the lineup will be Lipstick Jungle, a new dramedy starring Lindsay Price, Kim Raver and Brooke Shields.