Golden Globes Ratings Take a Cosmic Nose Dive—Is Mercury in Retrograde or Just Bad TV Karma?
Added on January 14, 2026 inTV News Cards
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So, the 2026 Golden Globes danced onto our screens Sunday night, but did the stars align for a ratings win? Not quite — viewership slipped around 7 percent from last year, clocking in at 8.66 million souls tuning in on CBS. With the Moon lingering in cautious Capricorn, maybe even the cosmos were a bit reserved about the show’s allure, especially since CBS skipped the usual NFL pre-game boost this time around. Still, in a world where eyeballs often chase touchdowns more than tuxedos, the Globes managed to stoke a big spike in social media buzz — 42 million interactions, a 5 percent upgrade, with host Nikki Glaser’s opening monologue snagging some 14 million views. It’s like the digital stars said, “We’ll watch you, just maybe not live.” Curious how these celestial shifts echo down the ratings chart? Let’s dive deeper and decode what’s really cooking behind the flashing lights. LEARN MORE
The audience for the 2026 Golden Globes fell off a bit year to year.
The awards averaged 8.66 million viewers for CBS Sunday, based on final same-day Nielsen figures (including the ratings service’s big data component). That’s off by about 7 percent from the 9.27 million viewers for the 2025 Globes (CBS, which was in a contract dispute with Nielsen a year ago, cited 10.1 million viewers for last year’s telecast from VideoAmp).
Sunday’s show also marked the second straight small decline for the Globes. The awards’ first year on CBS in 2024 drew 9.47 million viewers, which dipped to 9.27 million last year. Last year’s number does not include the big data component of the ratings, which Nielsen rolled out across its products at the start of the 2025-26 season. (All three of CBS’ broadcasts have come in above the final two years of the Globes’ run on NBC.)
Unlike the past two years, CBS did not have a late-afternoon NFL game serving as a lead-in for the Golden Globes. The awards aired opposite a wild card playoff game on NBC that drew nearly 29 million cross-platform viewers. Last year’s awards ran against the NFL’s regular season finale, which had a similar all-in audience of about 28.5 million.
On the plus side, the Globes had a larger social media footprint compare to last year: The show had 42 million social interactions, up 5 percent year to year to its highest level ever. Host Nikki Glaser’s opening monologue drew some 14 million views across social platforms in the 36 hours after the awards.
Entertainment Tonight’s red carpet show preceding the awards drew 3.4 million viewers.
Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.
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