Airing on CBS for the second year in a row, the 82nd annual Golden Globes ceremony hit 10.1 million viewers on Sunday night.
That total is sourced from VideoAmp rather than Nielsen, the industry standard, as CBS’ parent company Paramount Global is currently in a contract dispute with the audience measurement company and does not have access to its data.
10.1 million viewers represents a 7% increase from last year’s show, which reached an average 9.4 million viewers (though last year’s total was measured by Nielsen). Hosted by Jo Koy, the 2024 ceremony was CBS’ first time airing the Golden Globes and achieved a 50% increase from NBC’s 2023 Globes telecast. (NBC’s viewership was likely impacted by the fact that 2023 marked the first Globes ceremony to take place after the scandals that wracked the now defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which conducted the awards.)
When isolating for livestreams on Paramount+ and the CBS app, viewership was up 9% compared to last year, per VideoAmp.
Airing from 5 p.m. to just past 8 p.m., Sunday’s Globes benefitted from NFL lead-in, with CBS having aired the Chiefs-Broncos game directly beforehand. However, the ceremony also aired in competition with NBC’s telecast of the Vikings-Lions game, which began at 5:30 p.m and averaged 28.5 million viewers.
The 2025 Golden Globes were hosted by Nikki Glaser, who was the Golden Globes’ first-ever solo female host and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Variety critic Araminde Tinubu wrote that Glaser “was vibrant and zingy from the moment she opened her mouth” and that her “overarching topics and several laugh-out-loud moments enabled her to reset the Globes to its former delightful glory.” Co-showrunner and executive producer Glenn Weiss told Variety on Monday morning that Glaser “would be great at this in the long term” and had “perhaps” already been asked to return as host.
Ricky Kirshner served as showrunner of the Golden Globes alongside Weiss via their White Cherry Entertainment banner. Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Variety parent company PMC in a joint venture with Eldridge, is the producer of the Golden Globes.