Golden Globes Secrets: Those Flu Shots Were Fake, But the Football Scramble Was Real

By Michael Schneider

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Nope, Hollywood notables aren’t suddenly shielded from catching the flu today. In one of the most memorable bits on Sunday night’s Golden Globe telecast, hosts Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh brought out an army of workers “from the Echo Park Rite Aid,” armed with needles, to vaccinate audience members with the flu shot.

“Roll up your sleeves, Hollywood, you’re all getting… flu shots!” Oh and Samberg exclaimed, as LMFAO’s rap anthem “Shots” started blaring in the room.

“You know you wore a sleeveless gown for a reason,” Oh added.

Celebrities like Willem Dafoe were seen on camera getting shots while sitting inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom. But just in case any of those stars believe they’re now immune, Variety is here to burst their bubble: It was all a fake.

“It was not a flu shot,” NBC Entertainment co-chairman George Cheeks told Variety at the NBCUniversal afterparty. “It was not a real flu shot. I watched closely, it was not real.”

That wasn’t the only behind-the-scenes intrigue that Cheeks shared. As NBC’s telecast of the NFL Wild Card game between the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles threatened to go long, Peacock execs were scrambling to figure out what to do with the Globes telecast.

“We were going to hold out,” Cheeks said. “The game was going to stay on NBC. We would have held the live show as long as we could.”

But ultimately, Cheeks added that the telecast would have eventually had to start in order to fulfill international feeds. In that case, it would have aired on a tape delay on NBC.

“Luckily we didn’t have to worry about it,” Cheeks added, as the game ended — with a big win for the Eagles, and heartbreak for the Bears over a missed field goal — with just seconds to spare.

Meanwhile, viewers, critics and others noticed another thing missing from this year’s Globes telecast: Any mention of Donald Trump. Politics mostly took a back seat, as winners like Oh, Darren Criss, and even Michael Douglas, celebrated their parents and spouses in poignant ways.

“I thought it was beautiful,” Cheeks said. “A lot of family, it was a family show! Even the political moments were about community, bringing people together. And less about divisiveness, more about what unites us.”