Golden Globes 2026 review: Derailed by distracting stunts
In recent years, the Golden Globes have done their utmost to improve their reputation. Once somewhat infamous for having a small voting body easily swayed by star power, a setup that culminated in a 2021 membership controversy that led to a temporary suspension of broadcasting. Five years later, the Globes are under new ownership and now share a parent company Variety – which has implemented structural changes, such as overhauling the selection and, from this year, no longer paying a salary to older voters. There have been both stumbles, like a disastrous hosting gig from stand-up comedian Jo Koy in 2024, and successful course corrections, like hiring Nikki Glaser as MC last year and rightfully asking her back.
But even as the Globes have done their best to clean up their act, the awards show also tried to expand their reach and profitability in often clumsy and confusing ways. During the 83rd edition of the ceremony on Sunday evening, the tension between these two goals was on full display.
Firstly the positives. Glaser continued to confidently walk the thin and delicate line between landing punches as he seemed contagiously excited to be in the Beverly Hilton ballroom. While the repeated professions of love for various celebrities were a bit much, they managed to get the in-person audience laughing when she called Sean Penn a “sexy leather handbag” who does cocaine all over the world and labeled Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster sequel “Wicked: For Money.” Regular self-mockery – “like Frankenstein, I was put together by an unlicensed European surgeon” – created the feeling Glaser wanted. Callbacks to last year’s popular pieces like an Adam Sandler impression and the musical parody “Pope-ular” (now reborn as “KPong,” a mashup of “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Marty Supreme”) felt earned rather than self-indulgent.
The actual winners also offered plenty to feel good about. Teyana Taylor’s joyful tears started the evening off strong; Wagner Moura’s win for “The Secret Agent” solidified the show by demonstrating the benefits of the Globes’ international roots. If anything, the selections were quite sedate, with incumbent Emmy winners “The Pitt” and “The Studio” taking home the TV series trophies and Oscar frontrunner “One Battle After Another” leading the movie categories. The Globes no longer want to be known as the type of organization that nominates “Emily in Paris” alongside “Schitt’s Creek,” seemingly leading to a new conservative slant. But the show can still anoint breakout talents like Rhea Seehorn in “Pluribus,” and reap the reward of a giddy, delightful speech about beta blockers and the former chicken chain Koo Koo Roo.
Yet viewers experienced these demonstrations of seriousness amid a slew of distracting stunts. Announcers Kevin Frazier and Marc Malkin didn’t just make fun of the nominees’ biographies and the history of past nominations; peppering them with statistics about expected winners from the online gambling platform Polymarket, complete with screen-consuming graphics. (Disclosure: Malkin is a Variety colleague.) Actual awards, like best original score, which went to Ludwig Goransson of “Sinners,” were moved to the commercial break to make room for awkward non-jokes, like parading UFC fighters across the stage as “extra security” for the stars of “Heated Rivalry.” At least let them join the boys on stage, just for appearances sake! A soundtrack of boring Top 40 hits led to dissonant juxtapositions like Stellan Skarsgard taking the stage to Usher’s “Yeah!”, or the team behind “The Secret Agent” walking to Rihanna’s “Pon de Replay.” While it was a banger, the 2005 hit didn’t really set the tone for discussing a political thriller about life under fascism.
This clumsily commercial bent applied not only to the production, but also to the awards themselves. The best podcast category, a nonsensical and new addition that pitted the famed chat show “Smartless” against the NPR news roundup “Up First,” saw lengthy clips for each nominee, while the more established actors had to go without. (For some reason, the best screenplay also came with excerpts, a decision that was less cynically promotional and more bafflingly inconsistent.) Winner Amy Poehler, a four-time Globes host herself, was almost shy in her acceptance, acknowledging her recent arrival in the medium. With no disrespect to the delightful “Good Hang,” the show provides a more intuitive bridge between a Hollywood-centric event and a new source of attention and advertising than, say, “Up First,” which might contextualize its triumph.
The idea of honoring “box office performance” was practically laughed out of the Oscars when it was briefly brought up a few years ago. So its inclusion at the Globes further cements its reputation as the less serious cousin of the Academy Awards that the show is trying to move away from. Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners,’ which exceeded all financial expectations, is about as worthy a winner as the Globes could find, but the film was nevertheless nominated alongside releases that had no cash register (“KPop Demon Hunters”) or had not even been released at the time of nomination (“Avatar: Fire and Ash”). As with podcasting, the vagueness of the criteria only hurts the end product, putting inclusion of popular work above any consistent reason for doing so.
Growth can mean a number of things: maturation, or just the simple act of growing bigger. The Globes are trying to do both at once, but the latter risks coming at the expense of the former. Tame but respectable choices are at odds with sponsored content for legalized gambling, or an endless ramble by Judd Apatow. Pursuing too many conflicting goals at once frustrates them all.
Variety parent company PMC owns Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.
