How to Watch the Critics Choice Awards Online without Cable (2022)

Are you ready for the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards?! Yes? Well, that’s unfortunate, because they’ve been postponed from their originally planned broadcast on January 9th due to COVID-19. Don’t worry, though, they still plan to televise the awards ceremony on The CW and TBS. Read on to find out how you can get in on all the red carpet action without giving any nods to cable.

The 27th Critics’ Choice Awards

2022 marks the 27th Critics’ Choice Awards will air Sunday March 13 at 7:00 pm (EDT) from the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles. Taye Diggs is returning for a fourth year in a row of hosting, and this year comedian Nicole Byer (Nailed It!) joins him.

The CCA gives awards in more categories (21 total) with more nominees than any other major awards show. They range from the standard “best picture” and “best actor” and so forth to “craft” awards similar to the Oscars (visual effects, song, score, makeup, costumes, cinematography, etc).

Unlike the Academy Awards, they have an ensemble category, and categories for young actor/actress and comedy. Genre-specific awards for horror, sci-fi, and action movies have been moved to the newly-minted Critics’ Choice Super Awards.

This year, Belfast and West Side Story are the leaders in film nominations with 11 each; Dune and The Power of the Dog closely follow with 10 each. All four are up for Best Picture, along with CODA, Don’t Look Up, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, and Tick, Tick … Boom!

TV nominations include HBO‘s Succession (8 nominations) and Mare of Easttown (5), Paramount Plus’s Evil (5), Only Murders in the Building (4), Ted Lasso (4), The Good Fight (4), This Is Us (4), and WandaVision (4).

Critics’ Choice Awards on TV

It’s no secret that viewership across all awards shows is declining (even Super Bowl ratings are down). So in an effort to make the telecast more accessible, the Critics’ Choice Awards are becoming one of the first awards ceremonies to be televised on both broadcast and pay TV stations.

This year, the awards will be on The CW and TBS. We discuss how to actually access these below.

Watching the Critics’ Choice Awards Without Cable

Good news, awards show fans! You can watch the CC Awards over the air (OTA) on The CW, or you can watch it on any pay-TV service that carries TBS. You can watch on The CW via antenna. Or you can watch on either with a streaming service. Many provide access to one or both. So fear not, red carpet connoisseurs, you can ditch your cable service and still catch all the jitters, drama, and fancy dresses.

Antenna

The CW, while not as long-standing as the Big 4 Networks, is a widely available broadcast network. And just like NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, if you live near enough to a station tower, you can tune in — for free.

Just one catch: you need an antenna. Fortunately, HD antennas are cheap and easy to set up. They generally start under $50, and you find a place to hang the thing and plug it into your TV.

Once you have an antenna, you can pick up any networks local to you totally free. The CW itself covers over 97% of TVs in the US, so there’s a good chance you can pick it up. But, if you aren’t willing or able to get an antenna, there is an alternative.