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How to watch the 2017 Golden Globes online

How to watch the 2017 Golden Globes online

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The ceremony’s on TV, but the important stuff’s on the internet

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74th Annual Golden Globe Awards Preview Day
Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Tonight, the entertainment industry’s awards season gets off to its proper, public-facing start with the 74th annual Golden Globes Awards. And while the show can often be more useful as a punching bag for its bizarre categories than as a useful measure of artistic achievement, that doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining television — and that, my friends, is where we can help.

First things first. Who’s hosting this year?

That would be Mr. James Thomas “Jimmy” Fallon, better known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the former host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, or The Guy That Played With Donald Trump’s Hair.

He’ll probably be better than Ricky Gervais was last year, but hopefully we’ll get at least one strange cutaway to Gervais in the audience acting indignant, and that will help ease the transition.

Fair enough. Who is up for awards, anyway?

On the movie side, it’s a mix of what you’d expect (La La Land! Moonlight!) and what you wouldn’t (Deadpool! And Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool!). But the television categories are a legitimate murderer’s row, with shows like Game of Thrones, Westworld, Stranger Things, and The Night Of battling it out in various categories.

You can check out the full list of nominees right here.

You’ve convinced me. How do I watch this show of awards?

Well, the ceremony itself will be aired live on NBC, starting at 8PM ET / 5PM PT. But the network will kick things off on the red carpet, with lots of awkward interviews and fake hugging, two hours earlier: at 6PM ET / 3PM PT.

If you’re a cable or satellite subscriber, you may have assumed that you could watch the show at NBC.com/live since it was on the site’s schedule. Surprise! You can’t! Even though the site is simultaneously promoting the show while it’s preventing you from watching it.

That’s it? How else can I watch the ceremony online?

I was worried you were going to ask this.

Come again?

Don’t get your hopes up

Okay, so over-the-top subscription services like DirecTV Now, Playstation Vue, and Sling TV should offer the broadcast live. It’s been on their schedules. But availability of local channels can vary on those services depending on your market — and last year some Vue users were surprised to find that the Golden Globes were blacked out for them entirely.

When the red carpet started, we’ve checked in and the only option we could confirm worked was DirecTV Now. (If you were in Los Angeles.) Once the show started, that seemed to change yet again, and DirecTV Now customers got the same limp message NBC was serving up on its own website. There was only one way to make it even more obtuse and confusing, and somehow they found it.

Seriously? It’s 2017 and that’s the best Hollywood can do?

Of course not! Along with the stubborn resistance to sensical streaming solutions, we also have an overenthusiastic embrace of social media. And that’s where you’ll find more Golden Globes content than you ever knew you wanted.

Facebook

The Golden Globes’ own Facebook page will be hosting 360-degree live video from the red carpet, so you can watch all that fake hugging any way you like. According to Variety, the videos will be adopting the points of view of several guests, including Felicity Huffman and Sylvester Stallone’s three daughters.

During the show, the Golden Globes page will also be home to Facebook Live videos where various winners will be asked questions culled from eager fans. It’ll be like an AMA, except where you can’t really ask anything.

Twitter

With CES over, Twitter desperately needed a follow-up to our own Vergecast Live series. Thankfully, the Golden Globes red carpet was available to help them out, and while it’s unfortunately not clear if any gadgets will be featured, a live stream will be going up at goldenglobes.twitter.com starting at 6pm ET / 3PM PT.

Again, that will be the red carpet only, and not the awards ceremony itself. But let’s get real: the best way to enjoy the Golden Globes is to just read the smack talk on Twitter anyway.

Update, 8:30PM ET: Added further information about DirecTV Now.

Update, 7:00PM ET: Added more information about which streaming services are actually working (hint: DirecTV Now is the only one we can confirm).