Matt Rogers And Bowen Yang Have Saved The Celebrity Awards Show, Ya’ll
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: awards shows need to have way more fun. Like, all due respect to the classy queens and kings who curate three hours of polite elbow-rubbing between A-listers at the Oscars, but the pop culture that made me say “pop culture is for me” was a lot more chaotic than that. That’s why I was proactively gagged when Matt Rogers told me his and Bowen Yang’s iconic “I Don’t Think So, Honey” for the Las Culturistas Culture Awards on the purple carpet: “One thing I can say about this show, it’s not going anywhere you think at any single moment, so, if you think you know what’s up for this evening… I don’t think so, honey.”
As an elder millennial, I’m old enough to remember when the MTV Movie Awards were appointment television; they were a place where you could see Sascha Baron Cohen moon Eminem mid-air, girl group t.A.T.u (real ones remember!) lead a school girl strip tease introduced by Amanda Bynes and Hilary Duff, Zac Efron get his shirt ripped off while holding a Golden Popcorn, Tom Cruise play Les Grossman on stage, and Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling ruin dating standards everywhere with the ultimate kiss. With the Movie Awards cancelled (while the VMAs are on life support) and Hollywood stars far too fearful of cancellation themselves, there’s been a primetime-pop-culture-sized hole left in my heart… until I attended the 2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards (now streaming on Peacock) and was instantly convinced Bowen and Matty have cracked the code on making award shows fun to watch again.
Las Culturistas Culture Awards 2025: Best Moments, Celebrity Guests & Winners
Las Culturistas Culture Awards Red Carpet
I was nervous for the LCCAs’ red carpet, and not just because I was going to be breathing the same air as Andy Cohen. Even though this wasn’t the first time the LCCAs were going down (as Publicists, Finalists, Readers, and Katies know well, Matty and Bowen have been hosting this show for fans of their podcast since 2021), premiering on Bravo is a huge step into the mainstream for Las Culturistas, which naturally drew up some big names to the historic Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. With 100 award categories — from Lindsay Lohan in Parent Trap Award for Twins Excellence to Best Title for the Next Bridget Jones — nominees and fans alike were eager to discover what the two comedians found the most culturally relevant in 2025.
Thankfully, the stars clearly got the memo to look camp right in the eye from the moment they hit the carpet. I laughed with Jamie Lee Curtis about Labubus (“I worry about anything that becomes so precious that people feel they can’t live without it. Then people go to all these lengths to get it, and it’s just another trend…Someone (me) went bananas trying to get a Furbie for my child.”). I probed Andy Cohen for any future Nene Leakes news (“I’m kind of focused on where we’re at now in the season” — that’s not a no!). I got the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City to dish on their seventh season (spoiler alert: Bronwyn is not backing down, IKTR).
But regardless of who I spoke with, it was evident that the task at hand (seriously celebrating our most unserious pop culture icons) was top of mind. When I spoke with LCCAs A-listers about the niche pop culture moment that made them say pop culture was for them, the answers high-key let me know I was in a chronically online safe space: The Captain and Tennille Variety Show for Andy Cohen, anything Drag Race for Sascha Colby, The Madonna/Britney kiss at the VMAs for Megan Stalter, chatting with Matt and Bowen as a first-time guest on Las Culturistas for Parvati Shallow, and everything surprising and strange about Jojo Siwa for Remi Wolf.
After watching Love Islanders, Dylan Efron’s chest hair, and Law Roach share the same carpet, I was confident — this was not going to be your average award show.
Who performed at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards?
The Orpheum was filled with girls, gays, and a few good straight men, ready to giggle, and Matty and Bowen delivered the opportunity from the very opening number. The hosts started by cosplaying astronauts with Andy Cohen (who was handing over the keys to the Bravo network for the night), returning from another self-indulgent Bezos rocket launch. The culture kings then broke out into a legitimately spectacular performance of Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” which was so impressive I half expected Mother Monster to crawl out from under the stage.
And the artistic performances didn’t stop there. I was both weeping and laughing at Ben Platt’s melodramatic performance of Addison Rae’s “Diet Pepsi” backed by a sea of string instruments. Remi Wolf turned her song “Soup” into a very elevated homage to the Wiggles (complimentary). Lisa Rinna had the room at her feet when she did several runway walks across the stage, modeling the Outfits of the Year Nominees, most notably Demi Moore’s Yellow Jacket in The Substance. (See what good can happen when we keep this woman out of Beverly Hills?).
Las Culturistas Culture Awards 2025 Celebrity Guests
The only thing better than an award show packed with celebs is an award show packed with celebs who are game to be inside-joke weird with a room full of strangers. There were so many unforgettable goofy cameos when presenting and accepting the evening’s ridiculous honors, including Gabby Windey dressed as the nurse on call for the night, Kristin Wiig cosplaying the Joker’s secretary (Robyn spelled with a y) when winning for Best Batman Woman, Andy Samberg bro-ing out during his acceptance speech for the Creatine Award for Straight Male Excellence and Ana Gayester’s win for the Jamie Lee Curtis Award (presented by Jamie herself) on behalf of a make-believe women’s crafting store in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The Orpheum burst into applause at the mere sight of Sarah Michelle Gellar (as any room with taste would do in the presence of Buffy) and Jeff Goldbloom, whose chest (specifically) bested other prestigious nominees such as Kate Winslet Hat Intro, and Paul Giamatti, Blue Paint for Most Amazing Impact in Film. One of my holy grail celebrity couples, Alison Brie and Dave Franco, imitated the most annoying couple at a party, which was a subtle fire promo for their new movie, Together.
Bennito Skinner and Meg Stalter reminded the room why they both have their own TV shows when presenting two Cultches, while virtual appearances from winners who couldn’t attend were brief but memorable highlights; Dr. Orna Guralnik of Couples Therapy won for The Sun Award (for being so fucking hot), Amelia Dimoldenberg of Chicken Shop Date nabbed the Pop Crave Award for Excellence in Journalism, Audra McDonald took home the Tina Turner Legend Award and Jenna Bush Hager bested muffins, sex (at times) and bodega guys that call you “boss” for the Today Show Award for Excellence in the Morning.
The lifetime achievement honorees of the night were Keenan Thompson (I greatly appreciated the excuse to revisit core-memory, Pierre Escargot, as well as the decades of laughs Kenan recounted to the crowd) and the timeless mother, Allison Janney, reminding us of how hard she’s mothered her way through Hollywood bullshit.
Las Culturistas Culture Awards 2025 Bravolebrities
In addition to Rinna, (former) Bravo star Paige DeSorbo stole the Allison Williams Cool Girl Award, wearing a very large hat. Angie Katsanevas gave a glorious reenactment of her high body count hair rant at Britani Batement, when accepting her win for Most Iconic Exchange of Words, followed by the entire RHOSLC cast accepting the Best Way to Ride with Your Bitches prize on behalf of Big Van That Housewives Get On To Go On Trips (sans Whitney Wild Rose). In between segments, Meredith Marks showed off her new DJ skills (which she told me she hoped to debut on season two of Next Gen NYC, should it be greenlit).
Seeing these Bravo baddies’ bedazzled bitchy behavior unedited IRL (like, I literally felt like Angie, Mary, and I were gossiping over glasses of wine) has only reconfirmed that Housewives is our society’s single greatest artistic achievement.
Topics: Bravo, Entertainment
Marissa Dow