Nikki Glaser, the two-time Golden Globes host, reveals she witnessed Conan O’Brien’s pre-Oscars jitters at a comedy club and marveled at his seamless hosting of the 98th Academy Awards, a performance that combined effortless charm with razor-sharp writing, including a bold nod to the Timothée Chalamet ballet controversy.
The 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, represented a high-wire act for any host, requiring a delicate balance of comedy, empathy, and sheer nerve to navigate three-plus hours of live television. When Conan O’Brien took the stage, the industry watched intently, aware of the Oscars’ recent rocky history with hosts. What followed was a masterclass in late-night savvy applied to awards show pomp, earning near-universal acclaim.
Few understand this pressure better than Nikki Glaser, the comedian who has helmed the Golden Globes for the past two years. Speaking to USA TODAY on the Vanity Fair Oscar Party red carpet, Glaser disclosed a key piece of pre-show intelligence: she had encountered O’Brien at a comedy club just one week prior, testing new material. “I saw kind of the fear in his eyes of like, ‘Here we go,’ because it’s live,” she recounted, confirming the universal anxiety that precedes even the most seasoned live TV performer (USA TODAY).
That raw anxiety transformed into effortless entertainment by Sunday night. Glaser, along with her writers’ group chat, functioned as a live industry focus group during the broadcast. Their rapid-fire texts—”Whoa, that was so good,” “Oh my God, they get permission to do that?” and “I wonder how they made that work?”—captured the collective astonishment of comedy professionals watching their peer execute with apparent ease. These reactions underscore how O’Brien’s performance not only pleased the audience but also earned the highest praise from those who know the mechanics best.
Glaser’s expert assessment cut through the surface charm. “Conan did so good tonight and did such an effortless job,” she stated. “It just looks like he’s having so much fun up there and that it’s so easy for him.” Crucially, she immediately contextualized this illusion: “And I just know that it’s not easy and how much work he put into it.” This insider perspective highlights the paradox of great live television: the best hosts make grueling preparation appear as spontaneous joy, a skill honed through relentless writing, rehearsal, and psychological fortitude.
The telecast’s most talked-about segment came in O’Brien’s opening monologue, where he directly addressed the Timothée Chalamet ballet controversy that had dominated pre-show gossip. By weaving this viral tale into his act with characteristic absurdist wit, O’Brien demonstrated a crucial hosting skill: hijacking the room’s biggest outside story and making it part of the show’s fabric. The joke’s success, landing with both the audience and critics, was later detailed by Yahoo Entertainment, illustrating O’Brien’s ability to turn potential narrative chaos into a comedic coup (Yahoo).
For Glaser, O’Brien’s success served as both inspiration and a mirror. She will return to host the Golden Globes for a third consecutive year in 2027, meaning she will soon reacquaint herself with that very same “fear” she observed in O’Brien. Yet she has accepted the challenge repeatedly, offering a psychological insight into the performer’s mindset: “What makes me feel alive is doing things that scare me. That fear, and then being done with it, makes me feel like ‘I did it.’ That’s what gives me self-esteem, for good or worse.” This mentality explains why certain talent consistently returns to the live-TV cauldron—the unparalleled high of conquering it.
O’Brien’s Oscars victory lap ultimately reasserted a timeless entertainment truth: the most seamless performances are engineered, not accidental. By transforming pre-show dread into on-stage delight, and by fearlessly tackling the evening’s most sensitive subtext, he delivered an Oscars telecast that felt both nostalgic and freshly invigorating. For an industry starved for reliable live-event magic, his appearance offered a blueprint: prepare obsessively, own the narrative, and above all, make it look fun.
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