It’s not every day a political podcast takes over Times Square’s coveted digital billboards. So it goes with The Ben Shapiro Show, which, as media reporter Oliver Darcy documented in his Status newsletter last week, swarmed the heart of Manhattan with ads featuring the Daily Wire co-founder in a clean-cut jacket and shades, looking down at the pedestrians and tourists below. Shapiro is just one of several right-wing podcast hosts among the 25 eligible contenders for the Golden Globes’ inaugural Best Podcast Award — and, so far, the only one mounting a clear For Your Consideration campaign to break into the category. (The Globes will announce the six final nominees for the award on December 8.)
This isn’t the Daily Wire’s first run at Hollywood recognition. Last year, Matt Walsh, another commentator within the Daily Wire universe, made an Oscars push for his liberal-provoking documentary Am I Racist?, which was 2024’s highest-grossing doc. The attempt went nowhere, and Deadline, which featured the film in its “Contenders Documentary” awards-season showcase series, soothingly framed the failure around the doc branch’s supposed aversion to titles with “overt takes” on American politics.
That episode came across to many as a troll consistent with the film’s schtick, a campaign engineered to get snubbed so Walsh could once again bemoan the illiberal tendencies of the elites who supposedly control Hollywood. Shapiro’s campaign, by contrast, seems sincere, underscored by his genial participation in The Hollywood Reporter’s first “Podcaster Roundtable” and his FYC campaign’s core argument of “setting politics aside for one night.” “We will never forego the opportunity to plant a flag in the heart of the cultural debate,” Shapiro told Vulture in a short statement. While his bid may seem quixotic, the Golden Globes have always been the sweatier cousin to the Oscars and the Emmys, prone to oddball choices and messiness. This raises a startling question: What are Shapiro’s chances at a trophy?
A lot is riding on the answer. The choices will set the tone for the category and signal how the Globes, along with its voting body, understands what this podcast award even is. And if Shapiro’s campaign proves successful even for just a nomination, it would suggest that the podcast category, and the Globes more broadly, are drifting into a more complicated and politically charged space.
For the most part, awards watchers think Shapiro doesn’t have much of a shot. “I’d be surprised if he was nominated, and I’d be shocked if he won — I feel comfortable saying that,” says Sonny Bunch, who covers culture and hosts a Hollywood podcast for The Bulwark…
