Comedy Stars Triumph Over Right-Wing Firebrands In First Golden Globes Podcast Nominations

It was a big morning for the nation’s podcasters as the first nominations for an audio series at a major Hollywood awards event were unveiled.

The Golden Globes unveiled its nominations for Best Podcast and comedy stars such as Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Dax Shephard as well as rising millennial star Alex Cooper triumphed over their political rivals.

The category consisted of Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard, Call Her Daddy, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, The Mel Robbins Podcast, Smartless and NPR’s Up First.

This meant there was no love for The Joe Rogan Experience, which is easily the most popular podcast in the country, topping the 2025 charts from Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

There was also a shutout for the right-wing firebrands that made up the original list of 25 podcasts that were eligible including Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro as well as the left-leaning Pod Save America from President Obama’s former staffers.

Shapiro, who runs The Daily Wire, had particularly been campaigning hard for a nomination and placed billboards in Times Square (as well as ads on this site).

It was also a good morning for SiriusXM, which took half of the nominations given it is behind Smartless, Call Her Daddy and The Mel Robbins Podcast. Spotify, Amazon-owned Wondery and NPR were behind the other three shows.

It’s also a blow for the podcast spinoffs of long-running television shows such as 20/20, 48 Hours, Dateline, Pardon My Take, and true-crime shows such as Crime Junkie, Morbid and MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories.

Bill Simmons, who hosts an eponymous podcast on his popular Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, which recently struck a video deal with Netflix, was also shut out as was The New York Times’ The Daily.

Theo Von, who hosts This Past Weekend, also didn’t make it alongside his comedy peers.

Helen Hoehne, president of the Golden Globes, previously said that the original list of 25, which was compiled by Luminate, which is also owned by Deadline owner Penske Media Corporation, which co-owns The Golden Globes alongside Eldridge, the list reflects the “depth, diversity and creativity thriving in the podcasting world today” and the show was “proud” to be the “first major entertainment award to recognize this medium”.