Ricky Gervais will host the Golden Globes for a record fifth time in 2020 – despite previously claiming he wouldn’t present the awards show again. The comedian, who hosted the show between 2010 and 2012 and again in 2016, will reprise his role for next year’s 77th edition, once again stating that this will be his final year as host. In a statement, Gervais said that the organisers the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had “made me an offer I can’t refuse. But this is the very last time I’m doing this, which could make for a fun evening”.

The Office creator, director and standup comic has previously used the gig to make typically off-colour jokes about stars including Bruce Willis, Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie and Jodie Foster. In 2016, he sent up the awards themselves, telling attendees that “[A Golden Globe] is, no offence, worthless.” He also took aim at the head of the HFPA, Lorenzo Soria, joking that “the Golden Globes doesn’t have an ‘in memoriam’ section to get you all depressed, instead we let the president say a few words”. There was room too for a reference to Donald Trump’s anti–migrant stance: “Eva Longoria and America Ferrera aren’t just two beautiful, talented actresses. They’re two people your next president, Donald Trump, can’t wait to deport.”

His polemical routines have drawn varied reviews. Time described the 2016 ceremony as “dire”, while Deadline described the host as getting “lamer as the evening wore on”. The Guardian described him as “pulling no punches”, adding that “[his] sharpest lines were aimed squarely at the ceremony itself”, while Entertainment Weekly took an less even–handed view, praising Gervais’s “funny rudeness and effrontery … that make an awards show such as the Golden Globes engaging to watch”.

Despite having been the target of his humour, Soria has praised Gervais’s return, stating that “when Ricky Gervais is at the helm of the Golden Globes awards, we can always expect the unexpected”. “There is always a palpable electricity in the room when Ricky takes the Globes stage,” added NBC Entertainment Chairman Paul Telegdy. “His return as master of ceremonies at the Golden Globes is much anticipated … we can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve.”



The Golden Globes will take place on 5 January 2020 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, airing live on NBC in the US with red carpet coverage shown in the UK on E! Entertainment. This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Andy Samberg and Killing Eve star Sandra Oh, drawing the lowest ratings since Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted in 2015. Neither the Oscars nor the Emmys had a host at all in 2019, and the Globes were hostless prior to Gervais’s appointment in 2010.