How Nikki Glaser Prepares for 2026 Golden Globes Hosting Gig Before Show

Nikki Glaser will return for her second year as host of the Golden Globe Awards on January 11, 2026.

The comedian was a hit while poking fun at Ben Affleck, Adrien Brody and Selena Gomez at the 2025 ceremony, so producers wasted no time in securing her talents for another year. With her second hosting stint just around the corner, Glaser has lifted the curtain on her preparation process.

“I didn’t know how tough it would be, in terms of the writing,” she admitted via the Golden Globes website in January 2026. “I wanted jokes that people at home and people in the room could get — jokes that are funny but not too mean.”

Glaser will have plenty of pop culture material to parody, as this year’s major nominees include Hollywood heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) and Wicked: For Good’s leading ladies Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

10 Buzziest Moments From the Golden Globes: Nikki Glaser Slays as Host, More

Keep scrolling to see what Glaser has to stay about preparing for the 2026 Golden Globes below.

Nikki Glaser Is Well Rehearsed Before Showtime

Prior to her hosting debut in 2025, Nikki Glaser confirmed to E! News that she practiced her Golden Globes monologue “93” times.

“[Tonight] will be my 94th time telling some version of this,” she said. “I mean, it’s still changed even from the last time I told it until now, so we’re constantly making edits, trying to top jokes, trying to strike the right note and tone for the evening. But a lot of work has gone into it.”

The comedian went a bit deeper into how she’d kept her Golden Globes monologue feeling fresh despite her grueling rehearsal process.

“I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh she’s just reciting some monologue.’ I practice so much, so that when I get up there, I’m off-book and I can just be in it,” she told E! News on the red carpet. “And then that’s when stuff’s gonna start coming out that wasn’t planned. And so now I know it so well that I can be myself up there.”

Some Jokes Get Cut

Nikki Glaser opened up about her writing process during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in January 2025, including sharing several jokes that were cut before airtime.

“The Golden Globes is the only show where you can see the biggest stars and movies and television joined together with the same goal — getting out of here tonight before Dax Shepard asked them to do his podcast,” she quipped in one deleted joke.

Referring to her “Stern file” of rejected gags, Glaser revealed she originally planned to make a risque joke about Sean “Diddy” Combs’ then-looming sex trafficking trial. (Diddy was convicted on two counts of transporting individuals for prostitution in July 2025, but acquitted on the more serious charges of two counts of transporting individuals for prostitution. He was sentenced to 50 months behind bars.)

“This is the last time all of you will be in the same room together until the Diddy trial,” she originally planned to tell the audience.

When Howard Stern asked why she’d cut the Diddy one-liner, Glaser explained that there was “another Diddy mention that works better and led us to more other jokes.” One Diddy joke that did make the cut was Glaser poking fun at how Hollywood changed after the disgraced mogul’s arrest.

“The afterparty’s not going to be good this year,” she told Golden Globes viewers. “But, we have to move on. A Stanley Tucci freak-off just doesn’t have the same ring to it. No baby oil this year, just lots of olive oil.”

Glaser also touched on the complexities of referencing a hot-button topic like the Diddy scandal.

“That [cut] one was so fun, and it was so nice to be like, ‘I’ll just tell it to Stern anyway,’” she clarified on The Howard Stern Show. “And that one you don’t want to do, because it’s like you’re accusing the people of that room of being involved in that, and they might turn on you.”

Nikki Glaser Takes Her Comedy Very Seriously

During a January 2026 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Nikki Glaser self-depricatingly explained why she works so hard on crafting her monologue jokes.

“I take it seriously. I love awards shows. I have imposter syndrome with everything I do, so I always want to do my absolute best,” she confessed to host Jimmy Kimmel. “I always feel like, ‘How did I get this job?’ I have to keep it. I never sit back and assume I’ve got this. Even though last year went well, I have to do better this time.”

A four-time Oscar host himself, Kimmel sympathized with the challenge of hosting an awards show two years in a row.

“You’re now competing against yourself,” Kimmel noted.

“I know and she’s a bitch” Glaser teased.

Nikki Glaser Asked Permission for Some Golden Globes Jokes

As part of her debut Golden Globes monologue in January 2025, Nikki Glaser took aim at Selena Gomez’s engagement to longtime love Benny Blanco. (The couple got engaged in December 2024 and tied the knot on September 27, 2025, in Santa Barbara.)

“Benny Blanco is here because of the genie who granted him that wish. Man, lucky guy,” the comedian teased.

Glaser described her mockery of Blanco as “the worst” joke of her Golden Globes jokes during a February 2025 appearance on the “Armchair Expert” podcast.

“I got his permission,” she clarified.

Otherwise, Glaser didn’t want her Golden Globes monologue to turn into a “burn fest” of the A-listers in the audience at The Beverly Hilton.

“Those people weren’t signing up for a roast. So, it was very gentle,” she said.

However, Glaser told CBS Mornings in January 2026 that she would not ask permission beforehand for her 2026 Globes jokes.

“There’s certain people that I don’t even know what I would say. Some of these jokes you think about, ‘OK, if I got their number, would I write them and ask them?’ And then I go, ‘You know what, they might say no, and I know the joke isn’t that mean,’” she argued. “I would rather ask for certain forgiveness later at the afterparty when they’re drunk.”

Some Celebrities Are Nearly Off Limits

Nikki Glaser confided in Gayle King on CBS Mornings in January 2026 that one celebrity was seemingly off limits.

“I’m trying out my monologue around L.A., at the clubs here, and just even any joke about Julia Roberts, they are not there for,” she said. “You cannot make fun of America’s Sweetheart. … They were booing, and I was like, ‘Is she here?’ It’s insane.”

Glaser wasn’t giving up, adding: “Whatever I end up saying about [Roberts], that is the most fine-tuned joke that I’ve worked on so hard, because it is very delicate.”

In general, Glaser plans to focus more on the current generation of Hollywood stars than their legendary predecessors at the 2026 Globes.

“I am a huge fan of these people,” she pointed out on CBS Mornings. “It’s easy for me to take down the newer batch of actresses and actors who are younger than me. It’s like, ‘OK, I can make fun of you. I’m like a veteran.’ But when it’s people that I grew up admiring, it’s a different approach this year.”

She went on, “You have to be very delicate about making jokes that aren’t going to ruin anyone’s night. But you also want to give the people at home something to laugh at, and you want to poke fun at the people that they’re dying for you to make fun of. People at home want you to make fun of the A-listers.”

Nikki Glaser Uses Her Family as a Sounding Board

The former Not Safe with Nikki Glaser host confirmed to Jimmy Kimmel that she tested some jokes with her family over the holidays.

“This year, because the Globes are a little bit later, I was able to go home [to St. Louis] for the holidays and spend time with my family,” she said. “[I got] in there and ran some jokes by them, see what they thought.”