Chelsea Handler kicked off the 2026 awards season by hosting the 31st Critics Choice Awards Sunday night in Santa Monica.
The comedian paid tribute to to the late Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner. “Everyone in this room knows that the nicest guy in Hollywood was Rob Reiner,” Handler said to the crowd towards the end of her monologue.
“Anyone who ever spent time with Rob Reiner knows that the minute that you met him, he felt like an old friend,” she continued. “When you were in a conversation with him, he was present, he was focused, and he was funny.”
Handler noted that both Rob and Michele Reiner “were tireless” in their devotion to causes that all revolved around decency and that everyone should be looking out for one another. Handler told the crowd, “I think we can all agree that we definitely need more of that, so let’s use tonight as a reminder of that decency and as a reminder of everything Rob and Michele represented and fought so hard for.”
While Handler’s speech ended on a nice note, she didn’t hold back at taking jabs at Hollywood both in the room and not. She joked that the nominees should all get used to see each other. “You guys are all going to be spending the next three months together, so whoever wins tonight, get used to seeing them win,” she joked.
Handler also took a second to roast Leonardo DiCaprio. “Leo almost didn’t make it tonight because he was trapped on a boat in St. Bart’s,” she told the crowd. “It was just like the Titanic, but worse because Jeff Bezos was there.”
She also took a jab at Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and president David Zaslav (and Nicki Minaj). “Sinners was a massive blockbuster. Although I haven’t been invited into a black person’s house since, except Nicki Minaj‘s, but who wants to go over there?” she started.
“Sinners is the story of brothers who start this really fun place for entertainment and then vampires show up, suck the life out of everybody and burn it all to the ground. Fun fact, the original name of the main vampire was David Zaslav.” Handler continued. Sinners star Michael B. Jordan could be seen on screen shaking his head at the joke.
The 31st Critics Choice Awards ceremony is airing live from Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar on E! and USA Network. (Find out where to stream this year’s show.) The list of the 2026 Critics Choice film and TV nominees is being updated live. Check out the stars’ arrivals and looks.
