How to watch the 2025 Golden Globe Awards live without cable, including free options

11/05/2024, 4:18 AM
fastcompany.com

It’s my favorite time of year: awards season, which celebrates the best of film and television from the past 12 months. Like many entertainment lovers, this Sunday I’ll be watching the Golden Globes for the fashion, the jokes, the critics’ picks—and of course, the winners, as the Golden Globe stats are a pretty good precursor to who will be taking home an Oscar two months from now.

The 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards will air live on Sunday, January 5, at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT), hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, who will be the first woman to host the Globes on her own (Amy Poehler and Tina Fey cohosted four times). Despite being the show that kicks off awards season, the Golden Globes is no stranger to controversy. In 2021, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which created the once-venerable Golden Globes organization, was publicly criticized for a lack of Black representation among its members. In response, NBC canceled the 2022 Golden Globes telecast.

In 2023, the star-studded ceremony was back—but not before the HFPA sold the Golden Globes to Dick Clark Productions, and in a complete restructuring, dissolved its membership.

Fast-forward to January 2025: Enter Glaser, hot off the heels of Netflix’s roast of Tom Brady—for which she got a standing ovation and became one of the most viral moments of 2024. Glaser’s no shrinking violet, but don’t expect her to pull a Jo Koy, last year’s host, who bombed with a few too many crude jokes at the expense of his star-packed audience. (One target that’ll likely be off limits, fingers crossed: the lawsuit-laden feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.)

Among the many presenters at the “world’s largest awards show” (a well-deserved moniker since it celebrates the best of both film and television): Andrew Garfield, Anthony Mackie, Ariana DeBose, Aubrey Plaza, Awkwafina, Colin Farrell, Jeff Goldblum, Brandi Carlile, Demi Moore, Elton John, Margaret Qualley, Michelle Yeoh, Viola Davis, Zoë Kravitz . . . and pretty much any celebrity you can think of from a slew of buzzy performances on both the small and large screens.

And now, without further ado, what you’ve been waiting for: Here, how to watch the Globes live on your computer, mobile device, or TV.

CBS

The telecast will air live on CBS. You can stream it on CBS.com or via the CBS app, but for that you’ll need a paid TV subscription with login credentials. Worth noting: If you’re one of the shrinking number of people who still have cable, you’re in luck. Ditto if you have an antenna somewhere and can catch it on air for free.

Paramount+

Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers will be able to live stream the Golden Globes telecast. But Paramount+ Essential subscribers will have to wait until the next day to watch the show. However, Paramount+ is offering a seven-day free trial, inviting new audiences to try the service along with tuning into this year’s Globes.

Streaming services

For those without cable or Paramount+, a number of paid streaming services offer CBS as part of a bundle—and are offering free trials as well: