While the 2026 Golden Globes is all about celebrating the very best in movies and TV, some viewers couldn’t help but talk about the music.
During the live three-hour telecast on Sunday, January 11, a variety of unique song choices were played inside The Beverly Hilton. According to producer Ricky Kirshner, there was a method to the playlist.
“I think that they’re mixing metaphors. There’s a difference between a ‘play-on’ and a ‘winner walk-up,’” Kirshner explained to Variety in an interview published Monday, January 12. “‘Return of the Mack,’ or ‘APT.’ for Judd Apatow, were obviously clearly set up for those play-ons. For the winners, we made the decision this year that we weren’t going to play their theme music, because sometimes those are downer songs.”
Both Kirshner and fellow producer Glenn Weiss tried to think with the mindset that Hollywood’s biggest stars are in attendance for a party.
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“There’s sometimes a 60- to 90-second walk-up from the back of the room, and those songs aren’t really energetic,” Kirshner explained. “So for the ‘winner walk-ups,’ they were just set as party music, no matter who the winner was. For the ‘presenter play-ons,’ those were more focused on who the presenter was.”
While there was plenty of music to get attendees and singers moving and grooving throughout the telecast, many winners were able to deliver their acceptance speeches on Sunday night without being played off.
Although the show ran a little longer than expected, Weiss explained that it was important for producers to allow winners to have the floor.
“We want to respect the winners, and we hope that they would have respect for us and the show and the process as well,” he shared. “But that said, we really do want to respect them and allow them to say what they need to say. So it’s a really fine line. It’s a delicate balance. At the end of the day, did we go longer than we wanted to? Yes, but it was some really great moments of television in there.”
After the show, both Kirshner and Weiss also addressed the moment when UFC players Mackenzie Dern and Brian Ortega helped introduce Heated Rivalry stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams to the stage.
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While the moment got mixed reviews from viewers at home, Weiss said the moment was part of a “party” atmosphere producers were trying to create.
“It’s not the same as the other award shows. We’re all at tables. People are drinking. We’re trying to present this show in a little bit of a different way,” he explained. “So the juxtaposition of these two elements together, the music, the light cues, all of that kind of stuff. It kind of discovered itself to be, ‘Hey, wouldn’t this be fun? You’d never see this happening on other award shows. So let’s run with this. Let’s run with all the heat that’s around these guys and what’s going on.’”
For those who missed the show, Hamnet and One Battle After Another won big in the film categories. As for TV, The Pitt and The Studio took home trophies in major categories.
