{"id":410139,"date":"2026-01-13T13:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T13:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410139\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T13:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T13:33:09","slug":"golden-globes-producer-on-awkward-ufc-promo-it-got-attention-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410139\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Globes producer on \u2018awkward\u2019 UFC promo: \u2018It got attention, right?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you believe the old adage that there\u2019s no such thing as bad publicity<\/a>, then UFC\u2019s head-scratching promo<\/a>, which was stuffed crudely into the middle of the recent Golden Globes Awards show, was very successful. Otherwise, the consensus is that the moment was pretty cringe.<\/p>\n

The 83rd Annual Golden Globes Awards event aired on Sunday night on Paramount \/ CBS, UFC\u2019s new multi-billion dollar home for the next seven years<\/a>. So, a little corporate synergy was put into play that saw UFC star, Mackenzie Dern, and former 145-pound title contender, Brian Ortega, walk out on stage to play the role of \u201cbody guards\u201d for Heated Rivalry presenters , Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams.<\/p>\n

We are not haters; however, there are so many better ways the show producers could have made this idea work. Unfortunately, the way it played out surpassed awkward into the bizarre and nonsensical. Perplexed awards show watchers online flooded X (formerly Twitter) to scratch their collective heads and mock the moment.<\/p>\n

During a post-Golden Globes breakdown with industry website Deadline<\/a>, event producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss were asked, \u201cWas it your choice how it played out?\u201d Which is typically what one asks when a bit goes over well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll say this: we were creating this party atmosphere,\u201d Weiss replied. \u201cWe were trying to not just present everything as traditional award shows would present them, maybe taking a few attention-grabbing moments and all, and UFC is obviously entering a new thing with CBS and Paramount+, so they\u2019re all partners. So, we basically decided to take two elements that are kind of hot right now, the Heated Rivalry \u2014 it\u2019s insane what kind of attention it\u2019s getting right now \u2014 to juxtapose it with that and create this moment together, we thought it was a fun little moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deadline\u2019s Nellie Andreeva pushed back on that, asking more directly, \u201cYou liked it the way it played out?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re getting more questions about it than anything else,\u201d Weiss said with a laugh. \u201cSo, it got attention, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the Heated Rivalry stars participated in the crafting of that moment, the producers said, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times you write stuff for presenters and they are like, yeah, \u2018no,\u2019 maybe, they add to it,\u201d Kirshner said. \u201cSo, we worked with them a little bit on a couple of different ideas, and the one they signed off on was that. And then when they showed up for the rehearsal, they really committed to the bet. So, it actually worked great.\u201d<\/p>\n

In case you were wondering whether Weiss and Kirshner would admit to any errors in how they ran the Golden Globes, the most hated element of the show was the integration of Polymarket betting into the event. Before every category, Polymarket odds on who would win popped on the screen.<\/p>\n

So, in case you were wondering, yes, betting is ruining awards shows now<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

Credit to Deadline for straight up just saying the Polymarket thing sucked. But, once again, Kirshner and Weiss suggested it was actually great.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid it really interrupt the show?\u201d Kirshner asked. \u201cSorry, I have to disagree with that. There are many times where you\u2019re showing tweets from home. \u2018Hey, who\u2019s going to win? Who\u2019s going to this?\u2019 It was a bumper going into the next commercial which set up the next award. Was there an element of it that was Polymarket? Sure, but I don\u2019t think it interrupted the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see how much it interrupts the UFC\u2019s shows when Polymarket makes its broadcast debut<\/a> at UFC 324<\/a> later this month (Sat., Jan. 24, 2026) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n

To checkout UFC\u2019s upcoming schedule of events click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you believe the old adage that there\u2019s no such thing as bad publicity, then UFC\u2019s head-scratching promo,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146],"class_list":["post-410139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}