As threatened, High-Def Digest‘s 2nd Annual Golden Globes Live-Blog commences this Sunday evening, January 15th. The ceremony begins at 8 PM EST on NBC. We’ll start blogging with the pre-show special at 7 PM. There will be many contests for free Blu-ray goodies. Don’t miss out. We had a lot of fun doing this last year. While the Golden Globe Awards themselves are utterly ridiculous and meaningless, the ceremony has a light atmosphere, it usually runs on schedule, and the celebrities in the audience are encouraged to drink. And Ricky Gervais is hosting again, which promises to be hilarious. Join us here for an entertaining evening and plenty of opportunities to win free Blu-ray discs. See you then!

Please read after the page break for the contest rules and information on how to claim a prize. The Bonus View will be taking Monday off for the MLK holiday and to rest up from the live-blogging. We’ll be back on Tuesday with your regularly-scheduled posts.

Comments Moderation

Everyone who reads the live-blog is welcome and encouraged to participate by commenting throughout. I don’t anticipate any troublemakers raising a fuss, but be aware that the standard rules of behavior for our site forum also apply here. In order words, no spamming, no personal attacks, and don’t be a jerk. Beyond that, we’re going to give you plenty of leeway to say what you want.

The software we use has an annoying design feature that requires our site staff members to approve each and every comment as they come in. We should have a few people here tasked with approving all the comments as quickly as they can, but there may be some delays between when you submit a comment and when it appears. During high-volume crunch times (especially around contests), some incidental remarks such as “LOL” and so forth may get passed over. This isn’t an attempt to single anyone out or censor you. Please continue to comment later.

Contest Rules

The live-blog will start during the pre-show special before the ceremony, but we’re going to wait until the awards show itself before we begin any contests. Contests typically run during lulls in the activity or commercial breaks. We plan to give away approximately 20 Blu-ray discs over the course of the evening.

You will have two ways to win:

1. At various times throughout the show, we will hold trivia contests about the award nominees or Golden Globes history. The first person with a correct answer will be flagged a winner.
2. You could win a disc simply by commenting during the show. If you crack a funny joke, or just say something that we particularly enjoy, you may be named a winner right on the spot. How many people win discs this way will entirely depend on how much you readers participate and how clever you are (based on nothing but our own subjective discretion). It’s in your interest to participate, so please do so.

We have set aside our rule that would normally prohibit someone who’s won a recent contest in the blog from winning again. We want everyone to participate. However, you may only win once during the live-blog. Also, other standard contest rules continue to apply. The contests are only open to entrants from the domestic United States. We will not ship internationally (whether you’re a U.S. citizen or not). Employees of High-Def Digest or Internet Brands and their families are not eligible.

How to Claim a Prize

During our Oscars live-blog last year, we ran into a situation where contest winners would try to jockey for better prizes if they didn’t like the ones they were initially assigned. In order to avoid that this year, all Blu-ray giveaway prizes will be named after the Golden Globes ceremony has ended. If you get flagged as a prize winner during the show, stick around to the end.

We will have a large pool of discs that each winner can draw from, among various categories such as Drama, Comedy, TV Shows, etc. All prize winners will be assigned a number based on the order they were named. We will then use a random number generator to determine when each winner gets to pick his or her prize. Being the last person to be named a winner doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get stuck with last pick.

Any prize winners who aren’t able to stay all the way to the end of the live-blog will be given an opportunity to contact us later to claim a prize. While some of the best titles may already be gone at that point, our prize pool is much larger than the number of discs we plan to give away. You should still have some good discs to choose from.

That’s it for the rules. Have fun!