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Nikki Glaser triumphs as the host of a revived 82nd Golden Globes

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06.01.2025

Last year’s Golden Globes telecast provided its strongest case yet for its retirement from public life. The previous version of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association imploded after having the open secret of its corruption exposed. NBC, its longtime broadcast partner, dumped it.

Even after Dick Clark Productions (owned by Penske Media Corporation, which also owns every major Hollywood trade publication) and Eldridge Industries, a private equity firm, snatched its cadaver from the side of a Hollywood freeway and CBS agreed to air its production, no entertainer of note wanted to get its lingering stink on them. They had to make do with Jo Koy, who had mere days to prepare and bombed spectacularly.

The Globes certainly took its sweet time in tapping a woman to host solo.

For reasons having absolutely nothing to do with Koy – “Barbenheimer,” mainly — the 81st Golden Globes garnered the telecast’s highest ratings in four years, guaranteeing the show would go on. But Koy’s faceplant made a person wonder if the Globes requires any human shepherds. Its ceremony went host-free for its first 38 years, as well as between 1996 and 2009.

On Sunday, Nikki Glaser proved all that it needed was the right one, and to give that person time to prepare her material.

The Globes certainly took its sweet time in tapping a woman to host solo. That’s right: Glaser is the first, and it took 82 Globes telecasts for that to happen. She’s a seasoned TV host, having helmed “Not Safe with Nikki Glaser” on Comedy Central and playing the ringmaster on “FBoy Island.”

Another claim to fame of Glaser's is talking frankly about sex and pornography – she's a big fan of both. “I am absolutely thrilled to be your host tonight,” she said in her opener, “And I gotta say, this feels like I finally made it. You know? I’m in a room full of producers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and this time all of my clothes are on. That was worth it!”

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For years, the Golden Globes telecast spiked its reputation as the awards season’s most freewheeling, booze-fueled broadcasts by employing Ricky Gervais, who pushed the boundaries of good taste.

Gervais’ increasing coarseness was interrupted by the one-two punch of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler playing the part of everybody’s funny friend in the room. Gervais reveled at making Globe attendees angry; Fey and Poehler would take a few clawless swipes but generally left the impression that they were laughing with them.

Maybe Glaser studied those approaches. Maybe she naturally understands that nobody wants to walk........

© Salon


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