Having hosted everything from the ESPY Awards to Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" to the Primetime Emmy Awards, Seth Meyers earned his place at the head of NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, and viewers got to watch him work the stage at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards. It was his first time hosting this particular awards ceremony, so we thought it would be worth taking a look at how he did in the more laid back Globes setting.
The Opening
The tone of an awards show is almost always set by the opening, and it's always hard to tell how big things will get. Anyone watching tonight's Golden Globes saw a pretty subdued introduction from Seth Meyers. There wasn't a speck of music, there were zero dance numbers, and we saw zero complicated light effects or pyrotechnics. What Meyers did bring to the table was a lot of snapy jokes, most of which landed in the way they were presumably intended. To be expected, chief among the topics were Hollywood's sexual harassment epidemic and racial inequality. And it wouldn't have been Seth Meyers without a few jobs at President Donald Trump, though he didn't get as confrontational as some other late night hosts might have. For example, instead of making direct references, he joked about remembering when Seth Rogen was the one getting American in trouble with North Korea with the comedy The Interview.
But all in all, it was a pretty by-the-books opening monologue. Seth Meyers brought in one of his late night segments to varying degrees of success, with Amy Poehler winning it all. Perhaps the best joke came when Meyers brought up Steven Spielberg's The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, and people immediately appeared behind him holding handfuls of award trophies. Hollywood presumptions are a funny thing, though, since The Post didn't win all those awards at all.
The Jokes
Oddly enough, the 2018 Golden Globe awards were largely run on hosting autopilot, with Seth Meyers taking the stage for less time than some presenters, it seemed. Many of the acceptance speeches were geared towards affirmative topics, such as the "#MeToo" campaign, and the Golden Globe producers seemed initially wary about having the orchestra interrupting such important and poignant thoughts. As such, even without a complicated and lengthy opening, the telecast quickly started running behind, which meant several extraneous bits were cut from the rest of the episode. Even the presenters themselves saw their time onstage getting chopped, which was eloquently hinted at by Neil Patrick Harris.
So it's almost hard to gauge Seth Meyers' Golden Globes comedy on much more than that opening monologue, since that was easily the screen time he got. Meanwhile, it seemed like the show was willing to give Oprah the entire third hour, which would have been fine. (If only everyone had a tiny Cecil B. DeMille award underneath their seats.) In that respect, I suppose Meyers didn't tell any truly horrible jokes during his time.
The Final Verdict
By the time the credits rolled for the Golden Globe Awards, viewers had watched some fairly surprising award winners - such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's win for Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy -- and some other big moments that caught our attention. But when it came to the host himself, the Globes didn't do all that much to impress. Considering the all-inclusive vibe throughout the night, perhaps sidelining Meyers was an intentional move to keep the token white male host out of the limelight so that everyone could celebrate their respective victories with due time. Whatever the reasoning, I'm not sure Meyers' first Golden Globes hosting can be considered a runaway success, but coming out of a gig like this without any embarrassments is a win all on its own.
While we'll be waiting another year to see what happens on the next Golden Globe Awards broadcast, you can catch Seth Meyers in his normal home on NBC with Late Night with Seth Meyers airing every weeknight at 12:35 a.m. ET. Let us know below what you guys thought about Meyers, and to see all the new and returning shows hitting the airwaves soon, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
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