Golden Globes 2021: Best And Worst Moments Of NBC's Virtual Ceremony

A note to all awards shows that have dared to take place during the past year: The Golden Globes will see your virtual ceremonies, and raise you a broadcast hosted on two different coasts.

Unable to bring everyone to the Beverly Hilton Hotel due to the coronavirus pandemic, NBC got creative with Sunday's Globes, a semi-virtual affair emceed by Amy Poehler (in Los Angeles) and Tina Fey (in New York City). And, as you might expect from a ceremony that ambitious, the evening had its shares of highs (John Boyega's incredibly relatable bottom-half attire) and lows (you're on mute, Daniel Kaluuya!).

In the list below, we've gathered a dozen moments from the Globes that struck us as memorable for one reason or another, whether they were funny, tearjerking or downright cringey. And though it'd be easy to define the broadcast by its technical glitches or comedic bits that didn't quite work, this year's Globes were also quite moving, full of speeches and shout-outs that brought us to tears.

NBC's pre-show, hosted by Jane Lynch and Susan Kelechi Watson, earned a couple of spots on our list, as well, thanks to unscripted moments from Jared Leto and Regina King. (Well, Regina King's dog, that is.)

Grade the 2021 Golden Globes in our poll below, then scroll through our list of best and worst moments and add your own in the comments!

Pre-show interviews are chock full of "Stars, they're just like us!" moments, including this gem from Jared Leto when Jane Lynch made note of his lovely shelves in the background: "Straight from IKEA," the actor admitted, with a delivery so perfect, we'd like to give it a last-minute Golden Globe nomination.

No one can command a room quite like Regina King... except for her adorable dog, Cornbread. It's not that we meant to ignore what King was saying in her pre-show interview with This Is Us star Susan Kelechi Watson. But with Cornbread carefully climbing into his bed in the background, then settling in and giving a big yawn, how could you blame us? What a good, scene-stealing boy.

Viewers, Daniel Kaluuya's fellow nominees and an uncomfortable-looking Laura Dern tried to smile as the winner of Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role tried to speak but couldn't be heard, which felt especially symbolic given the lack of Black HFPA voters. But Kaluuya made up for the technical glitch by delivering a humorous speech from the heart. "You're doing me dirty!" Kaluuya said before expressing his gratitude and thanking his mom, sisters, costars and the man he portrayed, the late activist Fred Hampton. "Like the great Nipsey Hussle said, 'We're here to give until we're empty,' and I gave everything," the actor concluded.

While accepting the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role, the Small Axe star intentionally revealed that his awards show attire only went as far as his waist, proudly announcing that he was wearing "trackies" — aka Brit slang for track pants — on his lower half. Because why dress for what the camera can't see?

The Globes made many, uh, interesting technical choices during Sunday's broadcast, including the puzzling decision to have the nominees for an upcoming category linger on screen for a good 30 seconds (at least!) before a commercial break. What started as earnest smiles and waves to the camera quickly devolved into, "Wait, are we still on?" confusion and awkward giggles. "There they are — some of the biggest stars in Hollywood!" the Globes' announcer remarked, while the actual visual of said stars was Catherine O'Hara scrolling through her phone.

Thanks to choppy Wi-Fi connections and the strange phenomenon of seeing everyone's face in a small rectangle these days, some jokes can get lost in digital translation, like this bit between Schitt's Creek star Catherine O'Hara and her husband, Bo Welch. Perhaps in person, Welch jokingly playing wrap-up music for O'Hara over his phone would have landed, but here, it was just an awkward miss that we initially interpreted to be actual rudeness.

Tracy Morgan pulled a Tracy Jordan when he mispronounced the winner of Best Original Score — Pixar's Soul — as "Sal!" But the goof was quickly redeemed by the TV comedy actor nominees riffing on it before the commercial break. Don Cheadle was dumbfounded, Ramy Youssef couldn't stop laughing, and a giddy Jason Sudeikis ran with it: "Soul's Pizzeria!"

"It's great to be Black at the Golden Globes," This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown said, dealing with the elephant in the (ball)room as he took the stage to present the Best Actor in a Television Series category. "Back, back at the Golden Globes."

It's not that this pre-taped bit — in which celebs consulted real doctors about their new, quarantine-induced medical symptoms — was entirely unfunny. (Andrew Rannells' appearance was a highlight, for sure.). It simply went on far too long, and, uh, surely these docs have better things to be doing during a pandemic?

One of the evening's biggest tearjerkers came from the ceremony's smallest participant: Minari director Lee Isaac Chung's adorable young daughter. "I prayed! I prayed!" the girl exclaimed, jumping into Chung's arms after Minari won Best Foreign Language Film — and just like that, our Kleenex box was empty.

Cecil B. DeMille Award winner Jane Fonda used her acceptance of the lifetime achievement award to draw attention to "a story we've been afraid to see and hear about ourselves... a story about which voices we respect and elevate and which we tune out, a story about who's offered a seat at the table and who's kept out of the rooms where decisions are made." She struck the perfect tone as she urged her contemporaries in the biz to ensure that "everyone's story has a chance to be seen and heard." After all, art has always led the way, "so let's be leaders."

"He would thank God. He would thank his parents. He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices," began Taylor Simone Ledward, widow of the late Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020. After Boseman's posthumous win for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Ledward accepted the Golden Globe on his behalf in a speech that left Boseman's fellow nominees, and many other audience members, misty-eyed. "He would say something beautiful. Inspiring," she continued. "Something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells you you can, that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you are meant to be doing in this moment in history." Ledward's speech could not have been easy to deliver, but she did it quite beautifully.