Viewers tuning into the 2026 Golden Globes were left confused by a random UFC plug in the middle of the awards show.
Moments after The Secret Agent won Best Motion Picture (Non-English Language), the lights began to flicker as two UFC fighters clad in branded gear walked out, strutted downstage, and then disappeared.
“@paramountplus and @CBS promoting the @ufc on the @goldenglobes is the dumbest thing ever!!!!” one viewer wrote on X while another agreed, “Very random forced #ufc cameo. Corporate synergy.”
“This CBS UFC nonsense is a mess,” someone else wrote while another said, “the ufc people looked just as confused about why they were there as i was.”
Other viewers were annoyed that the UFC bit took up valuable broadcast time.
“The Globes took the time to televise two UFC fighters wordlessly walking to the end of the stage and back like a 5th grade girl modeling her new back to school clothes but Best Score was presented during a commercial break??!?” one wrote while another agreed, “rushing the secret agent crew off to have some random ufc people to circle the stage..?”
The cameo was likely the result of a deal signed by CBS’s parent company, Paramount, that takes effect this year, making the network the home for all UFC events.
Worth over $7 billion, the deal was announced in August and will have all 2026 UFC events and Fight Nights available to stream on Paramount+. Select events will also be broadcast on CBS.
The UFC cameo came after Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser opened the show with a fiery, no-holds-barred monologue taking aim at CBS.
After making several jokes aimed at A-list stars in the room and even the Epstein files, Glaser honed in on the network broadcasting the awards show.
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“And the Golden Globe for most editing goes to CBS News,” referring to its ongoing controversy, surrounding claims that its new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, withheld a recent 60 Minutes segment that was reportedly critical of Donald Trump’s policies.
“CBS News, America’s newest place to see B.S. news,” Glaser said. “We need another.”
Just last month, Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes report about the alleged abuses in an El Salvador prison for deported migrants, citing a “lack of sufficient context.” Her last-minute decision to spike the segment caused uproar behind the scenes, with one source telling The Independent that Weiss could soon be facing a “revolt” from staffers.
Even before Weiss controversially took over as CBS’s editor-in-chief in October, the broadcaster was under fire for its $8 billion merger with Paramount and Skydance, both owned by David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is a well-known Trump ally.
Sunday’s ceremony honored the best in film and television from the past year, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s Leonardo DiCaprio-starring dark comedy One Battle After Another leading the film nominees and HBO Max’s wealth satire The White Lotus hoping to dominate in the TV categories.
