The Moment
Joe Rogan is not mad he lost a Golden Globe. According to him, he never even let the Golden Globes put his name on the ballot.
On a recent episode of his hugely popular show The Joe Rogan Experience, while chatting with comedian Bert Kreischer, Rogan said the awards asked him to submit his podcast for the new Best Podcast category. The catch? A reported 500 dollar entry fee, which he says he refused to pay.
“So here’s the thing. A lot of people say: Why wasn’t Joe Rogan nominated for the Golden Globes? Why did Amy Poehler win? I didn’t submit,” he told Kreischer, adding that the money was supposedly for paperwork and that he simply said no.
Joe Rogan says he refused to participate in the Golden Globes’ best podcast category because there was a $500 submission fee.
“They asked me to submit to be nominated for the Golden Globes and you had to pay $500. And the $500 is like for paperwork or whatever. I said, ‘No.’ I… pic.twitter.com/bQHkiGU5OO
— Variety (@Variety) January 29, 2026
He also pointed out that his show has been number one for years and joked that a room full of people in tuxedos does not get to declare he is suddenly not on top. His comments came after fellow host Bill Maher used his own podcast to blast the Globes for leaving Rogan out while celebrating what critics see as safer, more Hollywood-approved voices.
For the Globes’ first-ever podcast trophy, nominees included Amy Poehler’s Good Hang, Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes’ SmartLess, the Mel Robbins Podcast, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, and NPR’s Up First. According to the Golden Globes’ own listings, Poehler walked away with the statue.
The Take
I will say this: nothing kills the romance of awards season faster than the phrase “500 dollar processing fee.”
On one level, Rogan’s story is extremely simple. The Golden Globes have a new podcast category. To be considered, shows are asked to pay to submit. A man who already makes a fortune talking into a microphone decides he is not spending 500 bucks for a gold statue he does not actually need. Emotionally, it is very “I am not paying to get into the club when I already own half the street.”
But wrapped around that is a whole culture-war soap opera. When the nominations came out, social media lit up over the lack of so-called anti-woke voices: no Rogan, no Tucker Carlson, no Megyn Kelly. It played perfectly into a familiar script where Hollywood is the smug gatekeeper and the outsiders are frozen out on principle.
Rogan just flipped that script a bit. If his account is accurate, this was less “You cannot sit with us” and more “I am not paying your cover charge.” It is a little like refusing to join a country club, then listening to people fight about why you were not invited to the pool party.
Does that mean the Globes were dying to hand him a trophy? Not necessarily. Awards shows still have brands to protect, advertisers to please, and reputations to rehab. Honoring Amy Poehler, an industry sweetheart, for a feel-good podcast is a much easier photo op than putting a lightning rod like Rogan on stage. The nominees list looks designed for minimal headaches and maximum celebrity selfies.
The truth is probably boring and transactional. Awards systems have always been pay-to-play in some way: submission fees, campaign budgets, the right publicist. Most insiders accept that as the cost of doing business. Most listeners at home, especially those just discovering podcasts during their commute or daily walk, have no idea.
So when Rogan casually drops that there was a 500 dollar gatekeeping fee, it rips the curtain back. Suddenly it is not just “Did he deserve a nomination?” It is “How many great, smaller shows never even get looked at because they cannot afford to buy a ticket to the dance?”
And that is where this whole thing gets interesting. Rogan will be fine either way; his audience is enormous, and he is busy chatting with people like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Bradley Cooper. The more important question is what these paywalls do to the next wave of podcasters who do not have Spotify deals or movie-star guests.
Receipts
Confirmed
- On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with guest Bert Kreischer, Rogan said he was asked to submit his podcast for Golden Globes consideration and declined over a 500 dollar fee, describing it as paperwork money.
- In the same conversation, he said he has been number one for about six years and joked that an awards show audience in tuxedos does not get to tell him he is no longer number one.
- According to the Golden Globes’ official 2026 listings, the ceremony introduced a Best Podcast award, with nominees including Call Her Daddy, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, SmartLess, the Mel Robbins Podcast, Armchair Expert, and NPR’s Up First. Good Hang is listed as the winner.
- Bill Maher discussed the podcast category on his show Club Random, criticizing Hollywood for not recognizing Rogan and calling industry insiders out of touch.
- Recent episodes of Rogan’s show have featured high-profile guests such as Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe, Ethan Hawke, and more, with the Damon-Affleck episode drawing millions of views on YouTube alone.
Unverified / Framed As Opinion
- Claims that Golden Globes voters deliberately “blacklisted” or coordinated against Rogan and other politically controversial hosts. That narrative is widely discussed online but has not been backed by on-the-record evidence from the organization.
- Assumptions about exactly how much weight a paid submission carries once the awards consider eligible podcasts. The group does not publicly break down its internal scoring process.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
For anyone who is not living in the podcast charts, Joe Rogan is a stand-up comic and UFC commentator whose long-form interview show became one of the biggest podcasts in the world. He famously signed a massive licensing deal with Spotify, and his guest list ranges from A-list movie stars to scientists to politicians, plus a trail of controversies over politics, COVID discussions, and language. The Golden Globes, meanwhile, are a long-running film and TV awards show that has been trying to reinvent itself after years of criticism over diversity, transparency, and ethics. Adding a podcast category is part of that push to look modern and plugged-in.
What’s Next
In the short term, expect the Rogan-Globes story to fuel the usual arguments: one side saying Hollywood is hostile to certain viewpoints, the other pointing out that Rogan chose not to participate in a system he keeps saying he does not respect.
The more practical question is whether other podcast awards and festivals quietly operate the same way. If the public starts paying attention to submission fees and campaign budgets in audio the way they have with movies, organizers may face pressure to lower costs or offer clearer rules so smaller shows are not frozen out.
As for Rogan, he is unlikely to lose sleep over one shiny trophy. With blockbuster guests, viral clips, and millions of listeners, he already has something every awards consultant wishes they could guarantee: an audience that actually shows up. The real test will be whether podcast fans ever care about a Golden Globe as much as a download count.
Sources:
The Joe Rogan Experience episode featuring Bert Kreischer, published late January 2026 on major podcast platforms and YouTube.
Golden Globes official 2026 awards listings for the Best Podcast category, accessed January 31, 2026.
Club Random with Bill Maher episode discussing the 2026 Golden Globes ceremony and podcast nominations, released January 2026.
Do you think awards like the Golden Globes still matter for podcasts, or is audience size the only prize that really counts now?
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