The Golden Globes are at it again

Buckle up, babes, some new Golden Globes f-cksh-t just dropped! Because our time on this revolving rock is fleeting and precious, let’s keep the rundown of Golden Globes’ f-cksh-ttery to just this past calendar year: there were the “secret” pay-to-play parties; the attorney general of California is investigating the purchase of the Globes and its parent organization, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association; and the original HFPA voters are attempting to reorganize and wrest control of the Globes from the current ownership, Penske Media Eldridge, which is owned by billionaire buddies Jay Penske and Todd Boehly. No idea where that last bit stands, the AG’s investigation is apparently still ongoing, and Penske Media Eldridge proceeds to act as the owners and producers of the Golden Globes.

Which brings us to the freshest f-cksh-t! For the 83rd Golden Globes which will be held on January 11, 2026, there is a new “Best Podcast” category. That in and of itself is not the f-cksh-t, although a podcasting award at a film & television awards show is stretching it. Nor is the selection process of the long-list of eligible podcasts, which allegedly involved a Penske-owned company, Luminate, choosing the 25 eligible pods, although that is deeply questionable as they apparently said an “outside company” would determine the pool of potential nominees. An “outside company” is not just another company you own. 

No, the f-cksh-t is that Penske Media, which owns Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline, is selling “marketing packages” for upwards of $75K for pods to push their casts to Globes voters. Basically, Penske Media is offering to run exclusive “for your consideration” media for a substantial fee. Now, how is this any different from the payola schemes of Golden Globes past? Didn’t all this mess start in no small part due to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association taking luxury trips to visit the set of Emily In Paris, which resulted in multiple nominations? 

 

Yes, it did, but 1) that DID result in the Globe shutting down for a year in 2022 and the (at least temporary, maybe permanent) disbanding of the HFPA, and 2) the problem with the podcasts, specifically, is that several hard-right podcasts are on the long-list, so Penske Media is selling FYC advertising to people who are contributing to polarizing, divisive, and hateful public discourse. Bad enough to legitimize that with a podcasting trophy, but they’re (allegedly) taking money to promote these platforms into mainstream entertainment space.

Among the pool of potential nominees are top-of-the-chart mainstays like Call Her Daddy, Crime Junkie, Armchair Expert, SmartLess, The Bill Simmons Podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, and MrBallen. There are also left-leaning podcasts like Pod Save America and Up First from NPR, as well as right-leaning pods The Shawn Ryan Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, and This Past Weekend w/Theo Von. And then there are hard-right podcasts like Candace (from host Candance Owens), The Ben Shapiro Show, The Megyn Kelly Show, and The Tucker Carlson Show. 

I actually would be less bothered if the political split was even, but it’s tilted to the right, which is consistent with American billionaire-owned media in general. But more than that, some of these podcasts are hosted by people devoted to making our public sphere worse. The last ten years of public life—in America and everywhere else—has been increasingly miserable as division, intolerance, and hate have been sown in no small part thanks to some of these hard-right podcasts spreading misinformation and culture war bullsh-t for profit. It falls into the same category as the Riyadh Comedy Festival—whose dirty laundry are you washing, and how much are you getting paid to do it?

But besides all of that, there is still the ethical question of Penske-owned companies selling ads for a Penske-owned award in Penske-owned media outlets. It’s a walled garden of unethical practices, which has ALWAYS been the problem since Penske Media Eldridge took over the Golden Globes. 

I have been saying for actual, factual YEARS that this whole arrangement is wildly unethical, and it is f-cking embarrassing of Hollywood to go along with it for a fancy night out. 

 

At this point, I don’t expect anything to change. Hollywood has already made it clear they will not give up the Golden Globes for anything, I doubt any amount of unethical self-dealing will change that now. And should one or more of these hard-right podcasters get nominated and attend the show in January, I doubt any of them will acknowledge the hypocrisy of hobnobbing with the very Hollywood liberal elite they regularly decry. Everyone will dress up and smile and pretend like it’s business as usual. And for the Golden Globes, with its seemingly unending list of shady practices from a coterie of Penske-owned companies that surround the organization, it kind of is. As with everything Golden Globes, it all comes back to Penske.

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