After a difficult few years that saw a drop in ratings, disastrous hosting gigs and onstage mishaps (cue Will Smith, Chris Rock and the infamous slap heard around the world), awards shows seem to be back on top.
The proof is in the numbers: The 97th Academy Awards garnered its biggest audience since 2020, while the 2025 Golden Globes, SAG and Critics Choice Awards all saw a significant uptick in viewership over recent years.
It’s impossible not to attribute some of that success to streaming, as every major awards show has hopped on the livestream bandwagon. But finding a way around the continuous catastrophic fall of network TV is only part of the puzzle, as awards season has also managed to do something else surprising: It’s regained its place in the pop culture zeitgeist.
Even before the pandemic caused numbers to plummet, boring speeches and predictable wins mixed with an air of self-seriousness had sucked the fun out of the once-exciting experience of turning in to hopefully see your favorite project to performance of the year walk away a big winner. But as soon as we stopped paying attention, a knight in shining pink armor by the name of Ryan Gosling rode in to save Us. Clad in a sparkling rhinestone-studded suit, the actor took to the 2024 Oscars stage to rock our world with an epic performance of his Barbie-nominated hit “I’m Just Ken.”
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The lavish musical number was undoubtedly the most thrilling moment of any awards show in recent history, and social media was set ablaze for weeks. Gosling’s big swing seemed to serve as a reminder that these events are meant to actually entertain. The Globes said goodbye to Jo Koy — last year’s host who managed to chastise the crowd and start beef with Taylor Swift all in one fell swoop — and hello to Nikki Glaser, whose whip-smart roasting skills and genuine excitement for the job got even the most austere celebs to crack a smile.
The Oscars, meanwhile, brought in Conan O’Brien and his signature just-weird-enough flair. SAG host Kristen Bell took viewers down memory lane by bringing in all her former costars — a choice that led to a Challengers-esque kiss with The Good Place’s Ted Danson and William Jackson Harper.
But awards shows are more than just their hosts; they’re also about the actual awards — and 2025 was filled with surprises, laughs and tears. The Substance’s Demi Moore emotionally declared she’s “not done” after her first-ever Globes win, while Only Murders in the Building’s double SAG upset caused star Selena Gomez to run on stage and confess, “But we always lose!”
Kieran Culkin — whose A Real Pain performance won every award it was nominated for — kept people on their toes with his off-the-cuff remarks, from joking that he couldn’t remember his Globes speech because he and wife Jazz Charton took tequila shots with Mario Lopez to asking Adrien Brody to keep his Oscars acceptance speech short (he didn’t).
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Is streaming saving the art of awards shows? It certainly doesn’t hurt, but these ceremonies are also finding ways to be relevant again, trading transactional wins for authenticity and tapping back to the foundation of what made them appointment-viewing in the first place. They’re remembering to entertain while honoring prestigious art, and people are taking notice.
