It’s a new year and it’s most definitely a new look for the bastard child of awards shows, the Golden Globes. The 82nd rendition of what is typically the de facto kickoff for awards season begins a new five-year commitment from CBS tonight, fresh off an impressive ratings increase that convinced them to do so. More significantly, it will be helmed by the first female solo host in its history, and one that’s a damn sight better to listen to and watch than some recent choices have been.
Rising star and podcast queen Nikki Glaser gets the honor- and not a moment too soon, given how miserably received last year’s host Jo Koy was. With a significant part of the rocky history regarding whitewashed voting from the now revamped Hollywood Foreign Press Association that angered the diversity-focused powers in Hollywood behind it at last, Koy literally sh-t the bed with poorly received jokes which he then threw the writers under the bus for supplying him with in the aftermath. There will likely be no such issue tonight, as Glaser is one of the sharpest wits on the stand-up and roast circuit and is coming off a year where her rapier-like ‘tude was in full force. As THE INDEPENDENT’s Kevin Perry penned early this morning:
Last May, Nikki Glaser tackled the greatest quarterback in the history of American football and made herself a star in the process. None of the two million viewers who tuned in to Netflix’s Roast of Tom Brady were left in any doubt as to who handed out the most savage burns of the night, and many of Glaser’s devastating barbs quickly went viral on social media. With a deceptively sweet smile and deft timing, Glaser pulled no punches as she dealt out killer lines about Brady’s reluctance to retire (“I get it, it’s hard to walk away from something that’s not your pregnant girlfriend”), his $30m crypto losses (“How did you fall for that? Even Gronk [former teammate Rob Gronkowski ] was like: ‘Me know that not real money’”) and his divorce from supermodel Gisele Bündchen (“You have seven rings – well, eight, now that Gisele gave hers back”). Even comedy greats were impressed by Glaser’s rapier wit and the precision of her attacks. “No one is gonna do a better roast set than that,” Conan O’Brien told Glaser later on his podcast, adding that all future roasts will be measured against it. “Where is it on the Nikki Glaser scale? ‘It’s a 6.2.’ That’s pretty good, but it’s not her 10.”
If that sort of approach to A-list honorees seemes familiar, it’s because it worked brilliantly for the host perhaps best associated with the Globes, as Perry continued:
Historically, the Golden Globes tended to either go without a host or simply pair a couple of good-looking actors. That changed in 2010 when The Office co-creator Ricky Gervais took over the gig and decided to use the opportunity to goad and mock Hollywood stars. He memorably joked that year that he “liked a drink as much as the next man, unless the next man is Mel Gibson”. That reference to Gibson’s DUI and the actor’s subsequent antisemitic rant was just the start of it. The following year, Gervais returned and set his sights on offending even higher-profile targets like Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. “It seems like everything this year was three-dimensional,” he joked, “except the characters in The Tourist.”
And in the guise of someone as disarmingly attractive as Glaser, the expectations for her to provide incremental appeal to the kind of younger, male audience that isn’t necessarily inclined to watch a bunch of speeches for artistic achievements are high. As THE DAILY BEAST’s Matt Wilstein observed in his preview this morning, it’s an assignment that Glaser is eager to embrace–with perhaps one limitationL
Nikki Glaser is well aware that not everyone who tunes into the Golden Globes on Sunday night will know who she is. And it’s that self-awareness she’s hoping will help her avoid the disaster at last year’s ceremony.
“It taught me the importance of contextualizing yourself to the room as a comedian,” Glaser told Variety of her ‘reputation’ in an interview ahead of the show. “Comedians, we would love to be thought of in the same light as these A-listers, but we just aren’t.”
Koy’s monologue “would have gone a lot better” if he had acknowledged the fact that he was so unknown to many of the huge celebrities in the room, and the broad audience watching at home, she argued.
Glaser has decided to take a very different approach: “I’m going the other way and not assuming anyone knows who I am, and making sure they’re introduced to me before I start making jokes about them.”
And she will indeed be thrust into a white-hot competitive environment, as THE ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Jake Coyle teased in his preview from last night:
(T)he show does promise about as much star power as Hollywood can muster. Nominees including Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Selena Gomez. Jacques Audiard’s Netflix musical “Emilia Pérez” comes in as the lead nominee, with 10 nods, followed by Brady Corbet’s postwar epic “The Brutalist,” with seven, and Edward Berger’s papal thriller “Conclave,” with six. Among the top-nominated series are “The Bear,” “Shogun” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
Pretty highbrow stuff with some high-ego players, to be sure. And that remains as the elephant in this particular room when it comes to the Globes. It is now owned by the same conglomerate that operates the majority of the Hollywood trade publications, including DEADLINE, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and VARIETY!, not to mention the company responsible for the telecast for decades, the in-name-only Dick Clark Productions. The studios and platforms in contention have liberally spent tens of millions in advertising and sponsorships of for-your-consideration shindigs and clickbait-generating preview panels for months. For a cottage industry where transactional lobbying is a way of life, the GLOBES have historically been among the most egregious examples of it, and just because a theoretically more diverse group of voters now determines winners and losers the fact that the ecosystem surrounding it can effectively allow an entity with unlimited resources and cutthroat determination (any with the letters F and X in them, and especially those that also include the letters N,E, T, L and I as well are hereby noted) makes this entire exercises seem–well, hardly a reflection of vox populi.
So the hope that the potential of viral comedy and the sight of Glaser’s magnificent form dressed to the nines is perhaps what CBS and the awards circuit as a whole is banking on. Keeping these ceremonies culturally relevant to increasingly impatient generations is vital. If someone whose recent resume includes titles such as YOU UP?, BANGIN’ and SOMEDAY YOU’LL DIE is going to be the white knight in these otherwise murky waters. more power to her.
And with all due respect to incoming Oscars host O’Brien, I’m far less interested in his monologue or wardrobe than I will be in the choices that Glaser makes tonight.
You go, girl.
Until next time…