Sorry, your podcast didn't make the cut for next year's Golden Globes
Unless you're Joe Rogan, MrBallen, or the Pod Save America guys, anyway.
We were tempted to make this a screenshot of Zach Braff in Alex, Inc., but then we remembered we're the only people who remember Alex, Inc. (Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images)
With obvious exceptions for those of you in the audience who happen to be Joe Rogan, Amy Poehler, or Team Call Her Daddy, we have some bad news: It sounds like your podcast didn’t make the cut for the Golden Globes this year. Sorry, champ: Maybe get a new pop filter, add another recurring improv bit you recycled from a second-level Second City class, and try again next year.
This is per the Globes themselves, which on Thursday night put out the list of the 25 podcasts deemed eligible for winning in the award show’s very first podcasting category, set to be part of the 83rd Golden Globes in 2026. As is Globes-standard, the list is fairly predictable, bordering on machine-generated: You’ve got the older outlets who’ve moved with modest comfort into the form, including Dateline NBC, 20/20, and 48 Hours. You’ve got the celebrity-driven stuff, like Poehler’s Good Hang, Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert, and the triune menace known as SmartLess. True crime still has a firm toehold, with shows like Morbid, Crime Junkie, and the awkwardly titled MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories. And, of course, the regular mix of Rogan and Rogan-imitating comedians, along with a smattering of politics. (Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and the Pod Save America guys all made the cut.) If a couple of TV recap podcasts hosted by cast members of the TV show being recapped were in here, it’d feel like the Globes had just taken the Apple Podcasts data of the five most boring people you know, shuffled it, and just dealt the resulting mix out.
Which might actually be what happened: The eligibility list was apparently put together in partnership with Luminate, “the entertainment industry’s leading authority on audio analytics and insights,” which suggests a pretty data-driven approach. Which probably explains why there’s nothing either especially weird or interesting to grab onto here, and instead just the same basic list you could get by scanning the “Most Downloaded” tab on any given podcatcher. Which, hey: New media always wishes it could be treated like the oldguard, right? Welcome to the Golden Globes experience, podcasts.
Here’s the full list of eligible podcasts:
20/20 (from ABC News)
48 Hours (from CBS News)
Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard
Call Her Daddy
Candace
