Entertainment News

How to watch the 2018 Golden Globes on Sunday (hint: not online)

Roll out the red carpet

By Chaim Gartenberg@cgartenberg

Photo: Lloyd Bishop / NBC

Awards season is up and running this weekend with the 75th Golden Globe Awards, which will kick things off with Hollywood’s least serious award show. But even if winning a Golden Globe isn’t considered as much of an accomplishment as winning an Oscar, the Globes can often indicate which way the Hollywood winds are blowing. Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy the red carpet.


WHO’S THE HOST?

Seth Meyers, who you may know from his NBC late-night show, the aptly named Late Night with Seth Meyers. Or maybe you somehow caught his appearance in the 2008 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth — which, last I checked, was most notable for killing off the last vestiges of Brendan Fraser’s cinematic career.

It’s Meyers’ first time hosting, but he’ll be following in the talk-show-host footsteps of Jimmy Fallon, who hosted the Golden Globes last year. So at least the bar has been set for Meyers’ brand of humor. NBC is marketing the show under the tagline “Hollywood, we have a lot to talk about,” so expect lots of fun and not-at-all uncomfortable and awkward humor about the recent turmoil in Hollywood over sexual harassment and abuse.

Meyers has commented in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he took the gig in the first place after conversations with his wife and women on the writing staff, viewing it as “an opportunity to be able to say some things that you wouldn’t be able to say in previous years.”

WHO’S UP FOR THE BIG AWARDS?

On the film side of things, The Shape of Water, (seven nominations), The Post (six nominations) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (also six) lead the pack. Lady Bird (four nominations) is also in the mix for several big awards, although not for Best Director, since that category once again completely overlooked all female directors.


The awards aimed at TV shows are more widely distributed. HBO’s Big Little Lies leads with six nominations, but it’s up against a slate of other prominent prestige shows, including The Handmaid's Tale, This Is Us, Master of None, Stranger Things, and The Crown.

WHEN DOES THIS AWARDS SHINDIG START?

The 75th Golden Globe Awards will start at 5PM PT / 8PM ET on Sunday night, January 7th. The ceremony will take place at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The show will be broadcast live on NBC, as it has been since 1993.

And if you just can’t get enough of the glamour, you can tune in an hour earlier for the red carpet arrivals, which will be streamed exclusively on Facebook.

OKAY, I’M IN. HOW DO I WATCH?

Do you have NBC? Like through an over-the-air antenna, cable, or satellite television? Because this would really be a lot simpler if you did. You can simply just head over to your local NBC affiliate (Channel 4 in both NYC and the LA / Hollywood area), and you’ll be all set.

Sound good?

NO. HOW DO I WATCH ON THE INTERNET?

Shoot. I was afraid of that. You see, you’d think that if you have a cable login for NBC, you’d be able to simply watch the Golden Globes online over at NBC’s live-streaming site, just like you can almost every other piece of content that airs on NBC.

But last year, NBC didn’t stream the Golden Globes at all, apparently due to the fact that the company’s contract with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association doesn’t include streaming rights. It’s still unclear whether anything about that has changed since last year (the most recent 2010 extension of the contract with NBC was through 2018) but odds are that you won’t be able to watch online. The Verge has reached out to NBC representatives and will update with any new information.

IS THAT IT?

Well, there is one last thing you can try. Over-the-top subscription services like DirecTV Now, Playstation Vue, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and Hulu’s live TV service all in theory offer NBC. In years past, it’s been a crapshoot as to whether the Globes will show up. Last year, DirecTV Now had them briefly, before getting shut down. The only way to know for sure is to try the night of. Fortunately, most of these services offer free seven-day trials, so you won’t be committing to a long-term subscription if you want to give it a shot, but be warned that things probably won’t work.

At least you’ll always have Twitter to follow along with reactions and memes in real time.