The 2025 Golden Globes are just around the corner, with Nikki Glaser set to take the reins for the self-proclaimed “party of the year” on Sunday, Jan. 5. That’s when we’ll learn how the stand-up comedian will stack up against her fellow contemporary hosts, from Ricky Gervais to Jo Koy.
From 1944 to 1981, the Golden Globes opted not to have an emcee, with Robert Preston and Linda Gray being the first to tag-team the role in the 39th year. The ceremony returned to host-less the following year before employing a series cohosts – including the likes of William Shatner, Charlton Heston, Joan Collins, Faye Dunaway, and Tim Curry – from 1984 until 1995. After that, the Globe host gig was retired until 2010, when Gervais reinvigorated the format. For the past 15 years, several hosts have come and gone, for better and worse. Here’s our definitive ranking of just how golden those emcees performed, from worst to first:
In 2024, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the scandal-ridden longtime governing body of the Globes, was out (the Globes were acquired Dick Clark Production, a joint venture between Eldridge and Penske Media Corporation, which owns Gold Derby) and the ceremony relocated from NBC to CBS. Koy was brought on board only 10 days prior to the telecast, and the rush really showed. Koy’s material alternated between jokes that were extremely dated (like Meryl Streep’s lengthy awards résumé and Robert De Niro continuing to become a father late in life) to quips that did not work at all (i.e., his reference to “Barbie’s big boobies” and being “attracted to a plastic doll” along with jokes about Barry Keoghan‘s full-frontal nudity in Saltburn). Koy is certainly funny, but his Globes’ debut bombed, universally panned by critics and scathingly received by social media. Even Koy admitted he misfired, telling ABC’s Good Morning America after the show, “That’s a tough gig. I’m not going to lie.”
After a Los Angeles Times exposé found the HFPA had engaged in financial and ethical misdeeds and even more notably had a membership that included zero Black voters, the ensuing backlash forced the ceremony to be canceled in 2022. The following year, the Globes returned and tried to confront the scandals head on. Carmichael, who had just won an Emmy for his Rothaniel special, did just that, but it became clear that the audience response would be tepid at best. His delivered a portion of his opening monologue while sitting on the steps of the stage, which made for an awkward presentation. Even lines that were objectively funny, like asking if we could get Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige who hadn’t been seen publicly since 2007, safely returned in exchange for the Golden Globes sent back by fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise, did not land at all. And let’s not even get started with him referring to the Beverly Hilton as “the hotel that killed Whitney Houston.”
Fallon’s stint in 2017 started off promising with a celebrity-filled opening number that tipped the hat to La La Land, but things went south pretty quickly. Fallon spent a lot of time making political jokes (which has never been his specialty), and kept reminding us of his horrible interview with Donald Trump a few months earlier. But what further sank his hosting stint was not knowing what to do for over a minute when the teleprompter broke, and then an extremely cringy impression of Chris Rock (at the 1:47 mark below) that just made you want to hide under a blanket.
Some hosts might have struggled dealing with the fallout from the #MeToo movement, which was top of mind in 2018. But Meyers rose to the occasion by taking the subject head on. One of his best jokes lambasted Kevin Spacey and how he was replaced with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World (at the 3:37 mark below): “I was happy to hear they’re going to do another season of House of Cards. Is Christopher Plummer available for that, too? I hope he can do a Southern accent, because Kevin Spacey sure couldn’t.” Meyers’ most memorable moment (at the 5-minute mark below) was describing the starry pedigree of The Post and then a stagehand walked out with several trophies, prompting Meyers to say, “No, not yet! We have to wait.”
After a winning stint as presenters at the 2018 Emmys, the Globe-winning duo brought their comic chemistry to the Beverly Hilton. For the most part, it was a success. Despite an awkward opening of the celebrity-roasting, the pair eventually found their footing. Samberg scored when he booted Jim Carrey from the movie section of the audience to the television area.
Meanwhile, Oh’s best line came when she was talking about Crazy Rich Asians getting nominated for Best Comedy/Musical Picture (watch at the 4:59 mark in the below clip): “It is the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha.” The line prompted the latter film’s star Emma Stone to yell out, “I’m sorry!”
After not being unhosted for more than decade, the Globes decided to hand over the mic to the notorious Gervais. The British comic has hosted the show five times, bringing a welcome combination of cutting humor and an uncanny penchant for making the Beverly Hilton audience squirm. Among his standout moments: His roasting of the nominations for The Tourist () and asking Mel Gibson, “What the f— does sugart–s mean?”
Simply put, Fey and Poehler are the gold standard for these festivities. The Saturday Night Live alums always struck the perfect balance between biting humor and their trademark goofiness. In a portfolio full of amazing Globes jokes during their tenure, one zinger from 2013 about the controversy surrounding Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty still stands strong: “When it comes to torture, I trust the woman who spent three years married to James Cameron.”
Note: Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge and Penske Media Corporation, which owns Gold Derby.
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