If the Academy Awards are the Super Bowl for women, then the Golden Globes are their Pro Bowl. They’re more laid back, more fun, and fewer people care who wins. The best part about the Globes is watching the stars actually have a good time, which is enhanced by the awards ceremony’s notoriously open bar. The free-spirited Globes, sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, aren’t for everyone. Viewership for the show, which airs Monday at 8 p.m. on NBC, has plunged to half that of the Oscars, or 18.9 million last year. Last year NBC moved the Globes to Monday and away from its traditional Sunday night after getting slaughtered by ABC hit “Desperate Housewives.” But the show does have a very loyal core audience, mostly women, who spend the month between when the nominations are announced and the awards are given out debating on various online hubs who deserves to win. One of those hubs is the message boards on TheEnvelope.com, the Los Angeles Times’ popular awards show site. According to the site’s buzzmeter, which tracks predictions by award show pundits, ABC’s “Ugly Betty” is favored to win best comedy and best actress for America Ferrera, while Fox’s “24” will repeat August’s Emmy win for best drama. Tom O’Neil, columnist for the TheEnvelope.com, talks to Media Life about who was snubbed, how the Globes made “Ally McBeal” mainstream, and what the Oscars could learn from this ceremony.

The Golden Globes are seen as the fun and fluffy forerunner to the more serious Oscars and Emmys. Do you think there are aspects of the Globes, which tend to be more unpredictable, that could be incorporated into those later ceremonies to make them, well, more fun?
 
Start with 750 bottles of champagne. That's how much bubbly the 1,300 Globe attendees imbibe. Never wonder again why they're all in the bathroom when their names are called as winners.

Warren Beatty once famously said, "The Oscars are business, the Globes are fun." Jack Nicholson did something at the Globes he never did at the Oscars: he mooned the audience.
 

Were there any surprise TV nominees for the Globes? Anyone left out who should have gotten a nomination?
 
Globe nominations this year are shocking, an unprecedented snub of the new fall TV season.

Usually you can count on the Globes to hail the newest hot shows and stars because voters are members of the Hollywood foreign press reporting on that new TV scene for their newspapers back in Oslo, Capetown and Tokyo.

Only “Ugly Betty” got major notice by Globe voters, though. “30 Rock,” “Dexter” and “Heroes” got one or two scattered bids. Where are noms for “Brothers and Sisters?” Globe voters usually love upscale dramas featuring Oscar champs like Sally Field slumming it on the tube.
 

What are the differences between Globe and Emmy nominees? Are the Globes more likely to recognize non-Emmy darlings?
 
The Emmys act like a snooty closed club that's hard to get into. The Globes weren't afraid to give top awards to young-skewing hip shows like “Party of Five” as best drama series or the prize as best actress to 15-year-old Claire Danes of “My So-Called Life.”

That would never happen at the Emmys. Look at poor Sarah Jessica Parker. She finally won her Emmy in the last year of “Sex and the City.” Earlier, she won practically every year at the Globes. One award is very conservative, the other very liberal.
 

Who do you expect the big TV winners to be?
 
“Ugly Betty’s” America Ferrera is the perfect Globes candidate -- the hip, buzzed-about star of the tube's hottest new comedy. She can't lose.

“Ugly Betty” will probably win best comedy, but could be usurped by the American version of “The Office.” HFPA named the British version best comedy a few years ago, so they might be tempted to go there again, this time the Yankee route.

Best drama series is toss-up between “24,” “Grey's Anatomy” and “Heroes.” My prediction: “Grey’s.” Alec Baldwin of “30 Rock” looks like a lock for comedy actor since voters love big movie stars on TV. I'd bet on “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall for best drama actor. Kyra Sedgwick of “The Closer” or Ellen Pompeo of “Grey's Anatomy” for drama actress.

 
How about on the movie side?
 
“Babel” for best drama picture. Forest Whitaker (“Last King of Scotland”) will win best actor, Helen Mirren (“The Queen”) lead actress. On the comedy/musical side, look for “Dreamgirls” for best pic and the acting kudos going to Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat”) and Meryl Streep (“Devil Wears Prada”).
 

What drives interest in the Globes? Are people more interested in the TV or movie aspect?
 
Viewers are definitely most interested in the film categories. For two reasons: First, we're a nation of film snobs, so movies get referred to as the “silver screen” while TV is dismissed as “the boob tube.” Secondly, the Globes influence the Oscars hugely. More than two-thirds of Oscar winners of best picture and lead actor and actress win the Globe first.

TV's no slouch, though. Viewers care. The Globes, for example, put “Ally McBeal” on the map. One week after it won best comedy series at the Globes, the little-watched, obscure show on Fox saw its ratings leap 40 percent.
 

What's harder, predicting winners for the Globes or the Emmys?
 
Ever since the TV academy switched from using judging panels to at-home voting, the Emmys have become harder to predict. It used to be easy because they're judged based upon specific episode submissions. Just watch the episodes and the forecast is obvious. Not anymore. Sometimes voters base their opinions on the episodes, sometimes they don't.

But getting into the quirky heads of the Hollywood Foreign Press at the Globes is always tough, too. Best advice: predict the hottest new stuff.