The NFL has a problem on its hands.
Award show disasters are nothing new in entertainment.
But Jon Hamm just turned the NFL Honors into the most embarrassing disaster in league history.
Jon Hamm Bombed At NFL Honors In San Francisco
The 15th annual NFL Honors took place Thursday night at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco ahead of Super Bowl 60.
Actor Jon Hamm was tapped to host the show for the first time.
What followed was two painful hours of awkward jokes that fell flat and left the audience squirming in their seats.
Hamm made a series of jabs at NFL legends Aaron Rodgers, Terry Bradshaw, and Bill Belichick for missing their first-ballot Hall of Fame inductions.
His delivery was stiff and the jokes bombed.
The Mad Men star also took shots at Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, CBS analyst Tony Romo, and the NFC South division.
None of it landed.
Fans watching at home ripped Hamm to shreds on social media.
"Jon Hamm had the worst opening monologue in NFL honors history," one NFL fan wrote.
Another added, "Making Jon Hamm get on stage and make these jokes at the NFL Awards is absolutely criminal."
A third fan wrote, "The NFL has so many wonderful on-air personalities. Can someone please explain why Jon Hamm is the choice for hosting the NFL Honors?"
The NFL Can't Figure Out How To Host An Award Show
The NFL Honors disaster mirrors a broader pattern plaguing every major awards ceremony.
Nobody wants to host them anymore because social media turns every joke into a controversy and every misstep into a viral disaster.
The Golden Globes hired comedian Jo Koy in January 2024 and he crashed and burned with jokes about Barbie and Taylor Swift that left audiences cringing.
The Oscars can't find hosts willing to take the gig after Kevin Hart withdrew in 2019 over old tweets and Seth MacFarlane's "We Saw Your Boobs" routine became a national embarrassment.
Going hostless isn't the answer either.
The 2019 Emmys went without a host and viewership plummeted 32% to just 6.9 million viewers.
Award shows face an impossible balancing act trying to appeal to younger audiences while keeping older viewers engaged.
They hire edgy comedians to seem cool and relevant, then those comedians bomb because making fun of the people you're supposed to be celebrating creates an awkward atmosphere nobody enjoys.
The NFL fell into this exact trap with Jon Hamm.
Award Shows Have Become Unwatchable
Award show viewership has been in free fall for years.
The Oscars peaked at 57 million viewers in 1998 when Titanic swept the awards.
This year they drew just 19.7 million viewers despite claiming it was their highest audience in five years.
The median age of award show viewers has risen to 50, up more than 10 years since 2000.
Younger viewers don't watch the full broadcasts anymore.
They catch the viral moments on social media the next day and call it good enough.
The problem goes deeper than just hosting.
These shows have become bloated, boring, and self-congratulatory.
They last three or four hours when most of the audience checked out after the first 30 minutes.
Winners get 45 seconds to accept their awards while producers pad the runtime with celebrity presenters reading teleprompter jokes written by committee.
Award shows used to feel like cultural events that brought the country together.
Now they're just another thing to mock on Twitter while scrolling through your phone.
The NFL should take note and either fix the NFL Honors or cancel it before next year's disaster makes this one look tame by comparison.
Sources:
- The Mirror US, "NFL Honors host torn apart for creating excruciatingly awkward atmosphere," February 6, 2026.
- Sportskeeda, "'He's a terrible host… not funny at all': NFL fans rip Jon Hamm for 'worst opening monologue' in NFL Honors history," February 6, 2026.
- TIME, "Award Shows Are Dying. Is That Such a Bad Thing?" January 16, 2020.
- The National, "Why audiences have lost interest in award shows – and how to fix it before the Emmys," July 18, 2024.
