Nikki Glaser, and Actually Surprising Winners, Saved the Golden Globes 2025
After last yearâs utter catastrophe of a Golden Globes openingâstale, crass, practically booed-at jokes by host Jo Koyâwhat a wonderful bit of whiplash it was to watch this yearâs host, Nikki Glaser, right the ship and then some at the top of Sunday nightâs broadcast.
Glaser came to the Globes after a banger 2024, which saw the release of her Globe-nominated stand-up special and, most notably, a star-elevating performance at the roast of Tom Brady. Her roast jokes were lewd, crude, and precisely crafted, but that exact style was probably not quite ready for broadcast prime time. And certainly not for an awards show that is allowed to poke some light fun at the celebrities in the audience, but canât travel too far below the belt. There was some question as to just how Glaser would calibrate her typically raunchy, biting comedy for a gentler show.
Turns out, she nailed the calculation. Her set was sharp and clever, including some digs at the depravity of Hollywood culture that were framed broadly enough not to offend anyone in particular (beyond Diddy, I guess). The material was pitched with a modest reverence for the big movies of the year and their glowing talent, while at the same time bursting the crowdâs gilded bubble. She knew which celebrities to targetâthe ones game enough to do a bit with her, or at least laugh along with hersâwhich takes a special kind of skill that Glaser has, of course, honed over the yearsâalbeit in more extreme waysâat the many roasts sheâs done.
The highest compliment I can give is that Glaserâs opening set, and subsequent onstage bits, brought to mind the three glorious years when the Globes were hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, a perhaps unparalleled run of lovingly barbed Hollywood mockery. Glaser didnât traffic in Fey and Poehlerâs brand of loopy absurdism, but many of her referential jokes were just as tart. And she did add some slightly abstract silliness at other points in the show, particularly during an inspired bit in which she started, then stopped in shame, a hokey musical parody number reminiscent of Oscar days now long past.
Glaserâs confident hold of the stage called to mind the smooth glide of yesteryear, when many awards shows ran with a humming professionalism sincerely lacking in our current age of needless tinkering and poor hosting.
Which isnât to say that the whole broadcast was a roaring success. There were indeed some bad tweaks to the formula, particularly a holdover from last year that really needs to be discarded. Why canât we just have presenters stand in full view onstage, facing the audience? Why have the showâs producers instead chosen to put presenters in harsh close-up, with their backs to the megawatt folks in the room? That staging deadens the effect of any amusing scripted banter (and there was some this year!). If the people in the room arenât really invited into the joke, they donât laugh as much, which then makes one less compelled to laugh at home.
The nightâs stilted first award presentationâto a gushing, weeping Zoe Saldaña, giving old-fashioned earnestness in the best wayâimmediately halted the momentum Glaser got going. The janky visuals, terribly complemented by tinny sound, did a disservice to viewers and to the work being recognized in the room. They were even criticized by Canadian nice guy Seth Rogen! Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, awards shows. Just give it to us straight. And by straight, I mean straight toward the people sitting in the auditorium.
Still, the early high of Glaserâs routine went a long way in pasting over those problems, as did a handful of lovely speeches from the likes of Saldaña, Demi Moore, and, yes, even former awards show pariah Adrien Brody. There was a real sense of occasion to the show, a meeting of merriment and gravity, that has been lacking in a lot of awards shows post-pandemic. (Probably since even before then.)
