Golden Globes 2026 Review: A Straightforward Show in Desperate Need of More Swagger

When Timothée Chalamet won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, a mini-debate broke out in IndieWire’s Slack channel. What happened to his “Marty Supreme” swagger? Prior to Sunday night’s ceremony, the King of Christmas had been making the marketing rounds practically in-character: Confident. Loud. Orange. But on the Globes stage in the Beverly Hilton ballroom, he was, as one colleague put it, “diminished.”

“My dad instilled in me a spirit of gratitude growing up: Always be grateful for what you have,” Chalamet said. “It’s allowed me to leave this ceremony in the past empty-handed, my head held high, grateful just to be here. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say those moments didn’t make this moment that much sweeter.”

Dressed in an all-black ensemble, Chalamet kept his voice even and expressions level, conveying sincerity without getting blubbery (it’s just the Globes, after all) while earnestly acknowledging his director, Josh Safdie, co-stars (like Kevin O’Leary), and fellow nominees. With anything that could be construed as bragging confined to his closing line, the competitive drive fueling Chalamet for the past month was all but erased.

Was it a mistake, or a sign of maturity? Was it honest, or a calculated decision to dial things back? Some said they never found him more likable, while others compared his time onstage to a sleepy “wedding speech.”

Huh. OK. While yours truly believes Chalamet’s speech is 100 percent in response to any perceived backlash to his brash PR blitz — with so many older Oscar voters still deciding how to rank their ballots, it never hurts to be humble — polite debates like the one I shared with my savvy IndieWire cohorts were as compelling as the Golden Globes got for those of us watching from home.

Even for a “precursor” awards show, that’s not saying much.

At its best, the 2026 Golden Globes got out of its own way long enough to let the awards (and winners) speak for themselves. Great speeches from Rhea Seehorn, Rose Byrne, and the “Sinners” team were fun and/or sweet. Solid intros from presenters like Wanda Sykes, Don Cheadle, and Zoë Kravitz were memorable without overwhelming the honorees. It was a starry show (as it has to be), albeit one without a personality — which may not matter to general audiences in the here and now, but seems downright odd to veteran viewers and could spell trouble down the line.

The 2026 Golden Globes certainly didn’t bring back the “party” atmosphere so many past editions have bragged about, and with a Polymarket betting ticker popping up before every other commercial break (plus the Original Score award being handed out during one), it also wasn’t a reputable presentation on the level of the Oscars, Emmys, or whatever serious organization prizes podcasts. (Las Culturistas?) Unforced errors surfaced far too often, from the Google Maps-ing of the ballroom (who cares where they’re sitting? fill the screen with their faces!) to the inept color commentary offered while winners took the long walk to the stage. (With apologies to Kevin Frazier and Marc Malkin, you’ve got to have more to say while Chalamet takes the stage than, “Will he thank Kylie Jenner again tonight? We’re about to find out!”)

It wasn’t a disaster, like Jo Koy’s effort, or a semi-success, like last year. It just… was. It happened. The celebrities showed up, and the audiences who weren’t enamored with a 16-3 NFL game may have, too. Scraping by may be enough for an awards show still getting back on its feet, but it’s not enough to compete with everything else fighting for our attention on a Sunday night in January. (You should not have skipped “Industry” for this.)

Nikki Glaser at the 2026 Golden Globe AwardsCourtesy of Kevork Djansezian / CBS

The shrugs started with returning host Nikki Glaser, who feigned biting commentary with a CBS News joke (“America’s newest place for B.S. news”) before largely falling back on easy gags. Stop me if you’ve heard any of these set-ups before: George Clooney’s Nespresso ads. Kevin Hart’s height (or lack thereof). Timothée Chalamet is skinny. “The White Lotus” Season 3’s incest, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s (very) young dates.

It’s not that the punchlines were disastrous or defamatory. (If anything, they were so safe the subjects didn’t have to worry about blushing through their reaction shot.) It’s that they struggled to lead Glaser’s opening monologue anywhere exciting. She started with light topical touches (acknowledging the Warner Bros. elephant in the room, OK), gave a quick nod to the network (the aforementioned CBS joke), and then name-dropped celebrities, aka what the host does every year, taking us around the room for introductions, applause, and quick quips.

Well, quick except for one. After becoming the 1,000,000th person to poke DiCaprio about his dating habits, Glaser kept going. She apologized for stooping to such a “cheap” joke, and then pivoted into defending it — not only for being low-brow, but for its familiar subject matter.

“We don’t know anything else about you!” Glaser said to the famously reclusive megastar. Glaser tried to find a different topic. She even did her research. But the best she could come up with was an old interview with Teen Beat magazine where DiCaprio said his favorite food was “pasta, pasta, and more pasta.” (Yes, it’s real.)

In that all-too-brief moment, when the “One Battle After Another” star wasn’t sure where Glaser’s prodding was headed — and we didn’t either — the Golden Globes felt alive. The show carried a charge only live TV can offer, ready to embrace the unknown with a great stand-up leading the charge.

But then it was over, Glaser said Sean Penn looked like a sexy leather handbag, and things quieted down.

Afterward, the night felt perfunctory. Sure, there were aberrations, like when Rose Byrne said her partner, Bobby Cannavale, missed her big win so he could attend a “reptile expo” in New Jersey, or when Teyana Taylor danced her way off stage after dedicating her trophy to “my brown sisters and little brown girls [who] belong in every room we walk into.” (And I’d be remiss to omit Glaser’s extended repetition of a joke she made last year: I’m glad we got one verse of her “Marty Supreme”-inspired “Golden” parody! Progress!) But those spontaneous moments are all but guaranteed. It’s an awards show. The production needs to heighten the speeches, not distract from them, and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner struggled to make the Globes stand-out from the months-long parade of awards shows.

Granted, fading into the fray may be the best-case scenario for a show that kept encouraging its audience to place bets on the next round of winners and handed out yet another new award to a former host. (Amy Poehler won the inaugural Best Podcast award just two years after Ricky Gervais won the first Best Stand-Up trophy — which he won again this year.) But if the Golden Globes are ever going to establish an identity beyond “watch your favorite actors practice their speeches for future awards shows,” it’ll need a lot more swagger than this.

Dick Clark Productions, which owns and produces the Golden Globes, is a Penske Media company. PMC is also IndieWire’s parent company.

The 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards were held Sunday, January 11 at 8 p.m. ET in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California. CBS and Paramount+ broadcast the ceremony.