Golden Globes name 30 podcasts eligible for the 2027 Best Podcast award: who is in, who is out, and what the rules say

On 5 October the Golden Globes published the list of 30 podcasts that may compete for the second Best Podcast award on 10 January 2027. The list is compiled for the Globes by the data company Luminate. It is five names longer than the first one, 11 shows are new to it, and six have gone, including two of the six nominees from January.

That makes it a bigger story than an awards shortlist usually is. Together with the rulebook the Globes published in the summer, the list now spells out in writing what the only mainstream awards telecast with a podcast category counts as a top podcast: made in the United States, in English, in episodes of at least half an hour, and willing to pay to be considered. For networks, hosts and the advertisers who buy against them, that definition will shape a lot of marketing between now and January.

What the Golden Globes have confirmed

The 30 shows have until 30 October 2026 to submit themselves, and the Globes say submission is mandatory for a place on the ballot. Nominations will be announced on Monday 7 December 2026. The 84th Golden Globes air live on Sunday 10 January 2027 on CBS and Paramount+, with Nikki Glaser hosting again and Dick Clark Productions producing.

Nineteen shows return from last year, among them Good Hang with Amy Poehler, which won the inaugural award, plus Call Her Daddy, SmartLess, The Mel Robbins Podcast, Crime Junkie, Dateline NBC, Pod Save America, The Daily, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Megyn Kelly Show, The Tucker Carlson Show and This Past Weekend with Theo Von.

The 11 newcomers are Bad Friends, Behind the Bastards, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, Love Trapped, Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, My Favorite Murder, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, Revisionist History, The Toast and This American Life.

Those figures come from comparing the new list with the 25 names published on 2 October 2025. Six did not make it back: 20/20, 48 Hours, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Candace, The Ben Shapiro Show and Up First from NPR. Armchair Expert and Up First were both nominated in January. The Globes have not commented on any individual show, and Luminate does not publish its scores.

What the rules actually say

The criteria are set out in the Globes’ eligibility and consideration rules, last updated on 30 July 2026. A podcast had to release at least six episodes between 1 January and 30 September 2026, each at least 30 program minutes long. It must consist primarily of original content: film or television content converted into a podcast is excluded. Programs produced principally outside the United States are not eligible unless a US partner is a full financial and creative co-producer, and non-English-language podcasts are not eligible at all.

Luminate ranks shows on two sets of metrics for that nine-month window: audience reach and engagement (unique listeners or viewers, downloads or streams, completion rate, subscriber counts, retention and growth) and platform visibility (chart rankings, curated editorial placements, availability across platforms, and what the rules call social and cultural impact, which may include media coverage and social media activity). The data comes from platforms, hosting providers, studios, third-party analytics firms and Luminate’s own tracking.

Two of the exits look consistent with the written rules, although nobody at the Globes has said so. 20/20 and 48 Hours are the audio of ABC and CBS television programs, and the rules exclude repackaged broadcast content, although Dateline NBC, which also carries television audio, stays. Up First typically runs to around a quarter of an hour, well under the 30-minute floor. Whether those clauses are new or simply applied more strictly, the Globes have not said.

Getting on the list is free. Staying in the race is not. The same rulebook sets the Yangaroo submission fee at $500 for each Best Podcast entry, and it puts a $5,000 administration fee on uploads to the Indee viewing platform, where the podcast rules say at least three episodes of every submitted show must be made available to voters. Voters then choose six nominees, and the statuette goes to the show’s regular hosts, or to the production company if the show has none. Podnews, reporting the list on 7 October, described the criteria as opaque at times.

How the field has shifted

The first award went to comedy. Good Hang, made by Paper Kite Productions with The Ringer, won on 11 January 2026, with Snoop Dogg presenting, over Armchair Expert, Call Her Daddy, SmartLess, The Mel Robbins Podcast and Up First. The 2027 field leans even further the same way. Conan O’Brien, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino, Matt McCusker and Shane Gillis all arrive with shows built on comedians talking.

The political mix has changed too. Candace and The Ben Shapiro Show have dropped off, while The Megyn Kelly Show, The Tucker Carlson Show, The Shawn Ryan Show and Pod Save America all stay. Our reading is that this reflects Luminate’s growth and chart metrics rather than any editorial decision, but the ballot that reaches voters will have fewer overtly political shows on it than last year’s.

News is thinner on the list than it was. This American Life joins The Daily, but Up First is out and no other news show has replaced it. If you follow the best news podcasts in America, the likely consequence is that the Globes will keep rewarding personality-led shows and leave hard news to the Pulitzers and the duPonts.

Sports and video-first shows are the other arrivals. New Heights, distributed by Wondery, and Pardon My Take sit alongside The Joe Rogan Experience and This Past Weekend, all of which reach much of their audience on YouTube. Golden Globes voters are film and television journalists. That points to a two-stage contest: Luminate’s data decides who gets in, but a voting body used to screening prestige television decides who wins, and the two filters will not necessarily favor the same shows.

What it means for networks, hosts and listeners

For the companies that own these shows, the list is a marketing asset with a fixed calendar. Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend is a SiriusXM show, Good Hang and The Bill Simmons Podcast sit with Spotify’s The Ringer, Behind the Bastards is on iHeartPodcasts, and Bad Friends moved its ad sales and distribution to Wave Sports and Entertainment in a deal announced on 5 October, the same day the list came out. A nomination on 7 December lands in the middle of the holiday listening period and ahead of first-quarter ad planning, which is likely why every one of these companies will find the $500.

For hosts, the rules are explicit that the award goes to the people in front of the microphone, not the network. In a year of hosts moving between distributors with their IP intact, our expectation is that talent agencies will treat the 30 names as a target list.

For listeners outside the United States, the honest summary is that this award is not about you. The rules exclude foreign productions unless a US partner is a full co-producer, and they exclude anything not in English. The UK podcast industry criticized the first list on those grounds a year ago, according to trade reporting, and the written rules confirm the position rather than soften it. The British Podcast Awards and the UK Independent Podcast Awards will remain the relevant stages for shows made there.

One more detail is worth noting. Deadline, in its own report on the list, disclosed that Luminate is owned by Penske Media Corporation, which also co-owns the Golden Globes through Dick Clark Productions. Nothing in the rules suggests that affects the scoring, but the shortlist and the telecast share a parent, and critics of the category are likely to keep pointing that out.

What happens next runs to a published timetable. Submissions close on 30 October. The Globes’ awards calendar has television and podcast nomination ballots going to voters on 16 November, with completed ballots due at KPMG by 24 November, the six nominees announced on 7 December and the winner on 10 January. We will be watching whether all 30 shows pay to enter, which the Globes did not disclose last year, and whether anything other than a conversation show breaks through. To catch up on the nominee that lost its place this year, our guide to the best Armchair Expert episodes is the place to start.

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