Marlon Wayans knows he mispronounced a lot of names while announcing the Golden Globes nominations on Monday morning — and for that, he’s sincerely sorry. “I’m not sure a lot of them know that they were nominated,” he quipped. Wayans said there wasn’t much time to rehearse those names — “we were given about three minutes beforehand,” he said.
Wayans, whose recent credits include “Him” and “Bel-Air,” announced the 2026 Golden Globes nods at the Beverly Hilton early Monday along with “Matlock” star Skye P. Marshall. Wayans wound up with categories that included pronunciations of names that gave him some pause — including the original song category. For that field, “Golden” (from the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack) was nominated, including composers Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, Park Hong Jun, Kim Eun-jae (Ejae) and Mark Sonnenblick.
After Wayans stumbled a bit over all those names, he joked, “Somebody’s mama at home right now going, ‘What, who?’”
Said Golden Globes exec producer Glenn Weiss: “I was sitting there so uneasy, thinking to myself, ‘Wow, she got some really easy names, and he got all the hard names together!’ But, you know, that’s proof that we don’t know what the nominations are!” Added fellow exec producer Ricky Kirshner: “That’s why I’m glad I’m not doing the announcement.”
For her part, Marshall said she has been practicing the pronunciations of top contenders in the lead up to Monday’s Globes announcements because she’s such a film buff. “I love the festival season, and so a lot of the buzzworthy projects and creatives were already top on my list as far as my projections, because I’m a fan,” she said. “So when the Golden Globes called to ask me to actually say the nominee names on television, I was extremely nervous. I was terrified, but equally, I was excited to see if my projections panned out. And I would say around 75% of them did… I just don’t like not knowing people’s names. Because I value the breakthrough, I want to make sure I’m saying Lee Byung-Hun properly and with confidence. Because I know his work, not just because I learned the pronunciation.”
But she also sympathizes with Wayans: “Marlon is so comfortable and so confident, and he understands that this is all for fun,” she said. “And maybe I need to lighten up. He’s a veteran, right? And I’m arriving to this stage for the first time.”
Now that the Globes nominations are out, Weiss and Kirshner immediately flip into how to frame this year’s telecast, which airs Sunday, Jan. 11 on CBS (and on some Paramount+ streaming plans). “This is the beginning of our journey,” Weiss said. “We’ve been working for months, but this information now informs us of what we can and can’t do, and we’ll see. It’ll be a month of creation.”
The big change this year is the addition of a new podcast category — and both Weiss and Kirshner were heartened to see several of the nominees come from Hollywood stars, including Amy Poehler (“Good Hang”), Dax Shepard (“Armchair Expert”) and the “SmartLess” team of Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.
“That definitely helped,” Kirshner said of the star power. “I hope they all show up.” Added Weiss: “think it’s a perfectly appropriate thing to fit in this type of show, which is celebrating multiple genres. So that said, How are we doing it? We’re going to give them a Golden Globe, like everybody else. But there might be a little fun way to get into it, which you’ll just have to tune in on January 11 to see.”
One element the producers are still hesitant to include on the telecast is music performances, even though this year’s original song category include fan favorites like the aforementioned “Golden,” as well as two songs from “Wicked For Good” and Miley Cyrus’ song for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
“Do you want us to do a four-hour show?” Kirshner said. “It’s been considered. I think we’d have to look at it again in the nominations. There’s not a lot of room in that [Beverly Hilton] ballroom, and now we’re putting in more people with the podcast category. So we’ve got to figure out logistically how to do that.”
Returning this year is host Nikki Glaser, who earned high marks for her performance helming the 2025 Globes. This time, Kirshner said Glaser returns with a bit more of a track record for viewers and audience members in person to know what to expect. “I think the room knows who she is now,” he said. “She kind of felt last year, the room just looked at her as a roaster, and were not sure what to expect. She’s way more than that, and they get it now. Also, I think she feels now more comfortable to do things besides just doing a monologue and stand up. We’ve been having conversation about, what else you want to do throughout the night.”
Both producers pointed to last year’s comedy bit where Glaser mashed up “Conclave” and “Wicked” to perform the “Popular” parody song “Pope-ular.” “They came up with that on Saturday night, 24 hours before the show,” Kirshner said. “So now we have a little more time to plan those kinds of things.”
Said Weiss: “Doing things differently and coming up with surprises are the assignment, for sure. Moments like ‘Pope-ular’ are going to come from looking over this nominees list and seeing what is appropriate to the show or not. One thing I want to say about Nikki is, what a pro. She worked really hard and really wanted to do well. She spent a lot of time testing material, redoing material, and all that stuff.”
With the Globes airing this year on Jan. 11, which is a week later than normal, that should give the producers more time to prep, right? “In all honesty, yes and no,” Weiss said. “Because most of the people that you’re dealing with — studios, publicists, whatever — are shut down between Christmas and New Year’s. So, though there is what feels on paper to be an extra week, it’s not really. Because the world’s not open during all that time. But yeah, we will take every minute of it.”
One more challenge producers will face this year: The Beverly Hilton is currently under reconstruction, and most of the venue’s lobby has been removed. That means less space for attendees to gather, and the circular driveway that usually houses the red carpet is gone. According to Dick Clark Productions, the Globes red carpet will relocate to Wilshire Blvd. this year, but the official Golden Globes viewing and after party will still take place at the Hilton.
Weiss and Kirshner return to produce the Globes through their White Cherry Entertainment shingle. Dick Clark Prods. is behind the 83rd annual Golden Globes.
Variety parent company PMC owns Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.
