Golden Globes to Add Best Podcast Category for 2026 Awards
The next Golden Globes will be presenting a new category and it won’t be for film or television. Podcasts will make their awards debut on the show in the very next edition of the Globes.
Nominees for the new category will be narrowed down to six candidates from a larger pool of the 25 most popular podcast series, although where the collective metrics would be coming from were unclear as of today, eligibility requirements for those rankings and other details will be announced in the coming weeks. The org also cited a Luminate data point that estimates global podcast audiences to exceed 600 million within the next year.
On Spotify, the top five podcasts include The Joe Rogan Experience, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, The Diary of a CEO With Steven Bartlett, The Daily, and Crime Junkie. On Apple Podcasts, the top five shows include The Mel Robbins Podcast, Good Hang With Amy Poehler, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Daily, and Crime Junkie. On iHeart, the top podcasts include Intentionally Disturbing, Dateline NBC, Crime Junkie, The Joe Rogan Experience, and Post Run High.
“As the world of entertainment continues to evolve, we are excited to recognize new forms of storytelling,” Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne said in a statement. “Podcasts have emerged as a profound medium for sharing narratives and building communities across global borders and generations.”
Best Podcast is the most recent category to be added to the Golden Globes slate since Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement – Motion Picture, and Best Stand-Up Comedy Performance – Television, which were added in 2023. “By celebrating achievements in both audio and visual podcasts, we aim to honor our heritage categories while making room for new voices and formats to be heard,” Hoehne said. Wicked and Ali Wong’s Ali Wong: Single Lady, respectively, won those categories at this year’s 82nd Golden Globes.
Specific requirements and guidelines regarding eligibility will be revealed leading up to the start of the nominations process. The 2026 Golden Globes will air on January 11, on CBS and Paramount+ with Nikki Glaser returning as host after her successful first turn last season. Nominations will be announced on December 8, 2025.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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