Golden Globes 2024: The Best, Worst and Wildest Moments

Dave Nemetz and Ryan Schwartz

January 8, 2024 at 1:05 PM·5 min read

Golden Globes 2024: The Best, Worst and Wildest Moments

The Golden Globes might have aired on a new network this year, but they’re still as wild and unpredictable as ever.

The 81st annual awards ceremony, which aired Sunday night on CBS after more than two decades on NBC, spiced things up with a new host — comedian Jo Koy — and a few new categories honoring box office performance and stand-up comedy. It also gave us surprising winners, inspiring speeches and painfully awkward moments. But to be fair, those are all kind of why we tune into the Globes in the first place, aren’t they?

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From jokes that went off the rails to a flurry of Taylor Swift reaction shots (we can never have too many of those, right?), it was definitely a night to remember… for better or worse. Read on to see the best and worst moments from the 2024 Golden Globes, and then hit the comments and tell us: What did you think of the revamped ceremony?

WORST: Don’t blame me, blame the writers

Cracks about Oppenheimer’s runtime and Barbie’s “big boobies” in host Jo Koy’s opening monologue didn’t go over well. But rather than fall on his sword, he attributed his lamest jokes to his fellow monologue writers. “I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at,” Koy said. Ouch!

BEST: Look what you made her do

“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL [is] we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” Koy joked. But he’d be wrong. There were plenty of shots of Taylor Swift, and we loved each and every one of them — especially her icy reaction here to that very joke.

BEST: A comedy power couple, confirmed!

They’ve kept their relationship very private, so it was cute seeing BEEF winner Ali Wong share a kiss with boyfriend (and Barry nominee) Bill Hader before heading to the podium to accept her trophy. We can’t imagine a funnier couple… and we’d love to see them work together on a project soon.

BEST: An adorable shout-out

While accepting his trophy for Lead Actor in an Anthology Series or TV-Movie, BEEF’s Steven Yeun acknowledged that “the story I usually tell of myself, to myself, is one of isolation and separateness. And then you come up here, and you have this moment, and you can only just think about everyone else. And that… feels like the plot of Frozen,” he said, laughing as he made the connection in real time. And then he went on to thank his kid for inspiring the start of his speech. “Shout-out to my daughter, Ruthie!” he said. “Family movie night!”

BEST: Just call him Tom

We get it: “Wambsgans” is not an easy name to pronounce. So we can hardly blame the Globes announcer who told us, as Succession star Matthew Macfadyen walked to the stage after winning for best supporting actor, that “Matthew wins his Golden Globe tonight for playing… Tom! On Succession.” We appreciate that he didn’t butcher it, at least… just as long as you call Tom CEO.

BEST: Why we need writers

In the wake of last year’s WGA strike, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trio Daniel Kaluuya, Hailee Steinfeld and Shameik Moore took a moment to acknowledge the critical importance of writers to the creative process. Then they proceeded with a segment allegedly written not by writers, but by studio executives. Here’s a little taste of how that went:

Kaluuya: “What is up, Shameik?”
Moore: “Not much, Daniel. How are you, Hailee?”
Steinfeld: “I am relatable. I am enjoy the Golden Globs. Do you agree?”
Moore: “I do agree.”
Kaluuya: “As do I.”

Yeah, let’s never have another writers’ strike.

WORST: Kevin Costner, Barbie fan?

It was a fun idea to have presenter Kevin Costner gush about America Ferrera’s Barbie monologue, but it would’ve helped if we believed for a second that a sleepy-voiced Costner had actually seen Barbie… or even read his presenters’ script at all before he stepped on stage.

BEST: Ayo Edebiri remembers Hollywood’s real heroes

We were thrilled to see Ayo Edebiri win a Globe for her work on The Bear, and even more thrilled when she graciously took the time to thank “all of my agents’ and managers’ assistants! To the people who answer my emails, y’all are real ones. Thank you for answering my crazy, crazy emails.” But don’t take our word for it: Taylor Swift approved, too, with a hearty round of applause.

BEST: “Suck it, Pedro!”

We love it when awards shows get competitive, and Succession’s Kieran Culkin tapped into some of that mischievous Roman Roy energy when he accepted the Globe for best lead actor in a drama — and promptly taunted his fellow nominees. Well, one in particular, telling The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal: “Suck it, Pedro!… Mine!” Pascal’s reaction was just as great, first laughing it up and then mock-crying at his tragic fate. Succession is over now, though, Pedro, so there’s always next year.

WORST: A very Drama-tic buildup

We all know that time is precious during an awards show, so why were the clips for the nominees for best TV drama series so damn long? At a whopping 30 seconds each — see the timestamp above — they felt like full-on trailers! And they took up precious time that could’ve been given to winners for their speeches… just in case another winner wanted to tell someone to “suck it.”