The 83rd Golden Globe Awards delivered several headline-grabbing moments, yet these were not enough to halt the show’s declining viewership trend.

The 2026 edition, which premiered on CBS on Sunday, experienced a nearly 7% drop in viewers compared to the previous year, as per Nielsen ratings released to Deadline.

According to the data, approximately 8.66 million people either watched the ceremony live or caught up later that day, a decrease from the 9.27 million who tuned in for the 2025 event.

Nielsen further revealed that the official pre-show, ET: Live on the Golden Globes Red Carpet, attracted around 3.4 million viewers through live and same-day viewing.

This year’s ratings decline persisted despite notable moments, such as host Nikki Glaser’s opening monologue, which featured one of the evening’s rare political jokes aimed at President Donald Trump and his administration.

Despite plenty of buzzy moments, Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony saw a decline of nearly 7 percent in year-over-year broadcast viewership, according to Nielsen ratings data shared with Deadline; host Nikki Glaser is pictured on Sunday at the Golden Globes

The data indicate that 8.66 million viewers tuned in live or later on the same day to watch the awards show, compared to the 9.27 million live and same-day viewers of the 2025 edition. One of the most high-profile moments was Teyana Taylor’s tear-streaked win for best supporting actress (pictured)

The comedian joked about the Epstein files, which the Justice Department has so far released only a — heavily redacted — fraction of the total it was legally required to release. 

Glaser even shocked onlookers by taking a shot at CBS, which broadcast the Golden Globes, and CBS News’ newly installed Editor-in-Chief, Bari Weiss, by joking, ‘And the award for most editing goes to CBS News. Yes, CBS News: America’s newest place to see BS news. We needed another!’

This year’s show also had some striking wins, including when Teyana Taylor won the award for best supporting actress for Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed One Battle After Another.

The 35-year-old singer was reduced to sobs of joy over her win early in the evening.

There were other surprises, such as Stellan Skarsgård’s unexpected win for best supporting actor for the Norwegian film Sentimental Value, and Timothée Chalamet’s high-energy acceptance when he beat out stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Ethan Hawke and Jesse Plemons to win best actor in a musical or comedy for Marty Supreme.

Some of those moments may have accounted for the relative improvement in Golden Globes ratings compared to its 2023 nadir.

That year, only 6.3 million people tuned in to watch the show, marking the all-time low for the Globes.

There are also signs that the Golden Globes may be on more solid footing than other major awards ceremonies.

This year still had better viewership than the 2023 show, when an all-time low of 6.3 million people tuned in. Timothée Chalamet’s high-energy best actor in a musical or comedy win was one of the big draws this year (pictured)

Unlike last year, the 2026 show didn’t benefit from a direct NFL lead-in; Sean Penn is pictured smoking inside the Beverly Hilton in one shocking moment from the show 

This year’s 8.66 million viewers eclipsed the 2025 Emmy Awards, which scored only 7.42 million viewers.

However, both shows were dwarfed by the 2025 Academy Awards broadcast. The Oscars had a whopping 19.69 million viewers tune in last year, more than the Golden Globes and Emmys’s viewership combined. 

The Golden Globes are traditionally considered one of the biggest predictors of the Oscars, which will air on March 15.

Deadline cited a lack of an NFL lead-in as a possible explanation for the decline in Golden Globes viewers this year.

The ceremony often benefits by having televised football games that wrap up just as it’s starting, ensuring that some viewers at home just leave their TVs on the same channel.

Although that ideal scenario played out in 2025, this year’s showdown between the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars started at 1 p.m. ET, and the gap between the end of the game and the start of the Golden Globes may have left an opportunity for viewers to change the channel or go do something else before the awards show. 

However, the publication noted that a football lead-in isn’t a surefire predictor of ratings success, as the 2025 broadcast viewership was still down two percent from the previous year, even with the sports assist.

This year may have been more chaotic, as both Fox and NBC were broadcasting NFL games, which may have kept potential viewers away from CBS when the Globes started. 

Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS, is apparently bullish on the show, and it claimed that the Golden Globes were responsible for 43 million interactions on social media, which represented a new high and a five percent year-over-year increase.