Well, the 2026 Golden Globe Awards have come and gone, meaning we are essentially the furthest we could possibly be from the next ceremony. Isn’t that sad? Who doesn’t love a Golden Globe, even when the people making the show suddenly seem determined to turn it into a hype beast event for straight men? Oh well. While we wait, let’s reminisce as I share some stray observations from last night’s broadcast. 

NIKKI FOREVER

She should get to host however many times she wants to do it. Returning for her second year as emcee, Nikki Glaser was once again bright, funny, and perfectly in-step with the ideal tone of the evening. She was irreverent enough, but didn’t make things too uncomfortable. The best part: Glaser made an obvious joke about Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating preferences, but then used that as the setup for a far fresher and more insightful bit about how no one really knows much about DiCaprio beyond said preferences. She rounded out the joke with a humanizing, endearing, absurd reference to a Teen Beat magazine interview DiCaprio gave in 1991. It was clever and unexpected. As was her subtle, elegant nod to Rob Reiner at the very end of the broadcast. Not every gag landed as well as they did last year, but she still did pretty great. If we can’t have Amy and Tina back, I’d happily welcome Nikki again and again for the foreseeable future.

GAMBLING AND AWARDS DON’T MIX

I mean, if you think that an office pool or a friendly ballot-off at a house party is gambling, then I guess they sort of do. But the Golden Globes and fucking Polymarket sure made for a hellish partnership last night. The relentless touting of odds was a brutal exercise in brand partnership, as cynical as anything I’ve seen an awards show do in a long time. Maybe the most cynical? Polymarket is an evil company that does evil things, and while Hollywood is by no means a paragon of virtue, the creators in that room are for the most part more morally upstanding and more beneficial to the world than a company trying to commodify the very unfolding of time and to turn everyone in the country into a bankrupt version of Ed Westwick in Children of Men. It’s also like, do these audiences really overlap? What Golden Globes audience member is also into online betting? I’m sure they’re out there, but I can’t imagine that most of the girlies and gay guys watching at home are really Polymarket’s core demo.