““Recovering.” That’s how Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner were doing before noon Monday, hours after teaming up as executive producers and showrunners for the 2026 Golden Globes telecast hosted by Nikki Glaser. The duo — partners at White Cherry Entertainment who have armfuls of Emmys and other trophies themselves for steering hundreds if not thousands of”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Good thing we have plenty to talk about today with a lot of new elements. Let’s start with host Nikki Glaser. Hollywood loves a sequel, and the reviews have been great for her. What was it like to work with a returning host and from a production standpoint, how much easier is it for you to jump in with someone who knows their way around the stage?
KIRSCHNER It was great having Nikki back. She’s fantastic in terms of work ethic. Some people who do award shows show up the week of. Nikki’s been full-on for at least a month or two. I don’t know how many club nights she did testing out material. We heard different versions and rehearsals over the week, and she did different versions at the clubs. That’s how you hone it down to the best eight or 10 minutes — practice, practice, practice. The work ethic is there. Her team is great. She’s got a full team of writers headed by Chris Convy, who really doesn’t get enough credit for being a central point of information, production, etc., etc. When you put in the time and effort like she does, you get reviews like last year and a sequel this year that is just as great. We’re very, very happy for her.
WEISS Honestly, she’s one of the hardest working people in show business, I have to say. As Ricky said, she really puts in the time and is a pleasure to work with.
You both have worked with a ton of people so that’s a big endorsement.
WEISS Honestly, no shade on anybody else. With her work ethic comes caring, listening to feedback and notes but also a great sensitivity and point of view. There’s a lot of good that can be said about her. She’s great.
Chris Convy and Glaser pose on the carpet ahead of the Golden Globes, which was planned, hosted and produced by Dick Clark Productions. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Speaking of sensibility, if there were any questions how she might up the ante, she answered those in the opening moments with jokes about CBS and redacted Epstein files. It’s always sensitive to take jabs at the network on which you air so can you share any feedback you received about walking that line?
KIRSCHNER [CBS] deserves some credit for accepting her as she is. If she’s going to go out there and poke fun at herself and poke fun at celebrities, and then she should be able to poke fun at the network, and that’s all good. They saw that in rehearsal and were fine with it.
Could there be a three-peat with her?
WEISS I certainly hope so.
Last year you used “fun facts” and trivia that popped up on the bottom of the screen as a way to give viewers more information about nominees, presenters, etc. This year you switched to in-person with Marc Malkin and Kevin Frazier who added color commentary as the winners walked to the stage. Can you talk about that choice and what you make of the mixed critical response online?
WEISS It’s an ever evolving process. I don’t think that anybody, or, at least not us, wants to walk in and do a cookie cutter version of the show you did the year before. Some elements work, some elements don’t. That is not a commentary on the question, that’s just our general vibe and feeling on how we approach the show. We think of the color commentary like this: If you’re watching a sporting event, you have a color and play-by-play person. When you’re in between plays, suddenly you have commentary that is more conversational with less statistical play-by-play talk. Rather than reading only factoids and statistics from one person, these two gentlemen were on the red carpet interviewing almost every person who went up on stage.
They not only know facts and trivia but they shared moments with many of the winners earlier in the evening. They were able to provide analysis for viewers while a winner was walking to the stage, particularly those who were coming from the middle or the back of the room because that could be a time consuming walk considering the layout and how tight the room can be. Rather than just playing music or reading statistics, we tapped into the knowledge base from these two gentlemen which was great. There was a lot of new information and value for the folks at home.
The category of best original score was cut from the telecast due to “broadcast time restraints.” Why did that happen and was it a decision made on the fly?
WEISS First, it was not made on the fly at all. There’s a group involved in every decision and a whole structure in place to decide such things. When a decision was made, we wanted to do it as respectfully as possible and not give out a trophy at a previous ceremony or on a red carpet as other award shows have done. We wanted it to be an experience for the winner in the room like every other award winner receives. If you go online right now, you can see the award presentation, complete with cutaways to Ryan Coogler and other people mentioned by[[Sinners winner Ludwig Göransson], treated in the same context as every other award. Views on that award are equal to best director right now, for example. Once the decision was made, we purposefully responded and executed with care and respect.
Let’s stay on music. The music choices — largely recognizable pop and dance hits — received a lot of attention online. How did you land on that decision and who selected the songs for each presenter and moment?
KIRSCHNER Talking to a lot of people, they thought that since the show is a party, some of the music choices felt staid. We decided to make it feel like a party, especially when someone is walking for 60 or 90 seconds to get to the stage. There’s a big distinction between presenter and winner music. When you play “Return of the Mack” for Macaulay Culklin, it’s obvious who the presenter is going to be. We have no idea who will win but in an actress category, we played “Isn’t She Lovely,” and no matter the winner, it works. We saw some of the commentary about the fact that we played upbeat music for a solemn movie, but we just played winning music. We were careful not to be disrespectful to a category based on those choices.
The Golden Globes telecast has always delivered fun moments for viewers by including all the shots of famous people mixing and mingling during breaks. You did that again this year but also added the element of four-way splits and such as a way to see more people. I’m not sure Leonardo DiCaprio is thrilled with his viral moment, but it was definitely fun to see. How did you land on that decision to add more cameras on the crowd?
WEISS Over the years, the Globes have done mingling shots, but it’s been traditionally a one-shot. Last year, my phone blew up for about four weeks after the show with all these different shots of stars mingling. We came to the realization that, man, there’s so much there. We are not doing a service to ourselves by having a one-shot. We figured that we would align with how people consume so many things at once by putting up four images at once, then change it to eight. We maximized the mingling shots for the audience at home because they’re watching the show and what they want to see is who is talking to who.
They also wanted to know who was going to win. You introduced Polymarket during the telecast. What were the challenges?
WEISS The biggest challenge was that it came fairly late in the game. But it was an added element that was really important to the organization and the people we work for. A big part of the challenge with any element like that is the creation of it and pulling it off as organically as possible. We tried to make the commentary similar to what we did with walk-ups, as in more conversational than commercial. There’s definitely growth to be had in this department, but it was a nice element to see how people at home reacted in real time.
Not a lot of clip reels this year, which a lot of movie and TV lovers are bummed about. How do you feel about that decision and how did you land on it?
KIRSCHNER It’s not a decision we take lightly. We actually had clip reels, long and short, and as the show moved along with more and more speeches, you have to make decisions near the end of the telecast and use the shorter packages. That’s how it goes on live television.
Let’s talk highlights. You’re always blessed with so many stars in one room and when you hand out a bunch of awards, something great always happens. There are moments you don’t see coming, like Julia Roberts receiving an impromptu standing ovation. What were your personal highlights?
KIRSCHNER It was a pretty amazing moment, and I think Julia was shocked, too. We were super excited that Julia and George decided to be part of our show in the last act. Big movie stars don’t always agree to do these things so that was exciting. Unbeknownst to everyone, except probably us and George, the standing ovation played right into George’s bit with Don so that was also great.
Any moments you’d like to get back or do over?
WEISS On every show I do, there are always moments I’d like to get back but I’m not going to single out any one of them. But I will share a highlight with you, which were the acceptance speeches. We didn’t have a lot of people pulling out pieces of paper and reading long lists of names. We had people speaking from the heart. There were 11 actors and one director who were first-time winners. That helped us a lot and gave us a lot of really cool moments to work with because there’s nothing like your first time, right?
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.