Anything can happen when it comes to live television, and live television is rarely as unpredictable as when stars of large and small screen come together for the Golden Globes awards. Liquor flows freely at the Globes, and celebrities can get pretty silly as the night goes on. With the 74th Golden Globes, however, the silliness started earlier than usual when host Jimmy Fallon had to take the stage without a working teleprompter for his opening monologue. Take a look!
The opening monologue for any major awards ceremony can set the tone for the entire show, and the 74th Golden Globes could have gotten off to a very awkward start if Jimmy Fallon had flopped during the teleprompter mishap. He's actually the first brand new host that has taken the stage at the Golden Globes in a while, so that showed his general hosting chops; the gig has gone back and forth over the past few years between Ricky Gervais and the comedy team of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. The teleprompter fail on Fallon's first Golden Globes gig in front of his showbiz peers, as well as millions of viewers, could have been a huge disaster, but Fallon luckily rallied, and we won't all need to cringe whenever we think back on the first few minutes of this year's telecast.
Jimmy Fallon made a smooth transition from the end of his improv session into his scripted monologue, and live viewers probably couldn't tell when the working monitor arrived with all the jokes that were ready to go. He didn't even need his pal Justin Timberlake to jog up to stage for an impromptu round of "History of Rap." It's always funny to see the two gents cracking up at each other - and Timberlake brought his classic Fallon impression to the Golden Globes in the opening musical number - but Fallon didn't require any assist.
He also clearly wasn't so traumatized by the teleprompter disaster that he couldn't make a joke of it even after the new monitor arrived and he was saved. Shortly after the awards kicked off, Jimmy Fallon joked that Mariah Carey had called in and said that the teleprompter failed as a result of technical difficulties from Dick Clark Productions. Carey probably didn't appreciate the reminder of her infamous performance on ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve, but Fallon's audience got a laugh out of it. All in all, the SNL vet got off to a great start despite a setback that could have been incredibly uncomfortable for many other celebs.
For more on the 74th Golden Globes, check out our updated lists of winners for the best of TV and the best of Movies from 2016. Don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what you can catch on the small screen in the not-too-distant future.
