Golden Globes Ratings Fell 7 Percent to 8.7 Million While Up Against Playoff Football

Nikki Glaser hosted the awards show on CBS for her second stint in a row.

The 2026 Golden Globes on Sunday averaged 8.66 million viewers across people watching on CBS according to numbers shared from Nielsen, representing a roughly 7 percent drop from last year when Nielsen said the Globes averaged 9.3 million viewers, though Dick Clark Productions, which produces the show, had reported the Globes averaged 10.1 million viewers.

It was comedian Nikki Glaser’s second year in a row hosting the Golden Globes ceremony, now in its 83rd year, as well as the awards show’s third year on CBS (it will be there through 2030). However, it also moved to a slot on the second weekend of January rather than right at the top of the new year, which unfortunately put it opposite playoff football on NBC, perhaps contributing to the decline year over year. It’s also the second year the Globes dipped in viewers after Jo Koy hosted the show in 2024.

Glaser’s monologue notched 14 million views across social media in the last 36 hours, and it has 3.7 million views on YouTube.

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

The 2026 awards recognized “Hamnet” and “One Battle After Another” in the Best Motion Picture races, and it went off the more expected beat and path by rewarding some deeper cut actor and actress contenders, including Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent,” Stellan Skarsgard for “Sentimental Value,” and Teyana Taylor for “One Battle After Another.”

IndieWire’s TV critic said the show at its best this year got out of its own way with some short but solid intros, and allowed for some great speeches from a few winners like Rhea Seehorn who seemed genuinely surprised to be up there, but the show on a whole lacked “pizzazz” and didn’t have the “party” atmosphere that hosts like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler used to cultivate.

“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,” critic Ben Travers wrote in his review.

This year’s Globes for the first time recognized the year’s best stand-up comedy special, which went to former Globes host Ricky Gervais for his special “Mortality,” and the year’s best podcast, which was awarded to “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” on Spotify. The still relatively new award for Cinematic and Box Office achievement this year went to Ryan Coogler’s film “Sinners.”