Nikki Glaser Kept Things Light (Mostly) at the Golden Globes

Nikki Glaser did not win a Golden Globe herself on Sunday night. “I’m first-time Golden Globe loser, Nikki Glaser,” she said after losing the award for best stand-up comedy performance to the comedian Ali Wong.

But she won something rarer: good reviews for hosting the ceremony.

Glaser — a fixture of the celebrity roast circuit who declared the show “Ozempic’s biggest night” — took on a notoriously difficult role that requires a delicate balance. She had to make fun of Hollywood and its foibles enough to entertain the viewers at home, but not so much that it alienated the A-list audience in the ballroom.

“I’m not here to roast you tonight,” Glaser said in her opening monologue. “I want you to know that. How could I, really? You’re all so famous, so talented, so powerful. I mean, you can really do anything. I mean, except tell the country who to vote for.”

With the heat on a light simmer for the three-hour telecast, Glaser managed to deliver the most positively received Globes hosting of recent years, as the show has sought to lift itself out of a history of scandal and near obsolescence.

Inside the ballroom, Glaser’s jokes kept the audience laughing, and entertainment critics saw her set as something of a comeback for a show in need of one. Robert Lloyd of The Los Angeles Times wrote that “in the term of the trade, she killed.” In Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson wrote that her performance “called to mind the smooth glide of yesteryear, when many awards shows ran with a humming professionalism sincerely lacking in our current age of needless tinkering and poor hosting.”

She received plaudits from many of her colleagues in the comedy world, with the comedian Guy Branum suggesting that she host the Oscars and Jon Stewart — who hosted the Oscars twice, to lackluster reviews the first time around — weighing in approvingly.