They've come a long way from the podcast. Literally. Las Culturistas podcast hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers touched down at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles August 5 via the "Blue Origin Too" space capsule, dressed in full designer astronaut attire. It set the mood for the evening: This is not a serious awards show.
Yang (Wicked) and Rogers (Fire Island) hosted their inaugural live awards show, the 2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards, celebrating the “most iconic and consequential moments of the year" in film, television, theatre, fashion, and queer culture. It was such a notable event that Bravo TV even aired the two-hour ceremony/comedy show, and it's now available to stream on Peacock.
A number of celebrities showed up at the very full auditorium. Jeff Goldblum went onstage to accept his award for Most Amazing Impact in Film—well, actually, the award recipient was Goldbum's chest in Jurassic Park, and Goldblum almost took off his shirt onstage before saying, "always leave them wanting more." Meanwhile, Reneé Rapp presented the award for the Reneé Rapp Award for Excellence in Lesbianism. Ben Platt gave a rendition of "Diet Pepsi" by Addison Rae (and "Ben Platt is here to sing the Record of the Year Nominee" was the write-in winner in the Best News We Heard category).
And among the 100 superlative-style (and irreverent) categories were some shoutouts to Broadway—including a literal shoutout. Kimberly Belflower's play John Proctor Is the Villain won the We Could See Boop! Award for Best Things to See. Betty Boop herself won the Woman of a Certain Age Award (because she is "timeless"). Another icon, Audra McDonald, won the Tina Turner Legend Award. Sutton Foster won the Greatest Showman Award (a reference to her current paramour).
And the phrase "Do you want to go to a Broadway show tonight" won in the category of Flirtiest Thing You Can Ever Say. We can agree with that.
What we at Playbill couldn't agree with was not televising any of the theatre awards (we can cry in the corner with the also under-sung category of Creative Arts and Technical Winners). But if you want to watch the replay, the loving spoof of traditional awards shows is currently streaming on Peacock. And if you want your own Cultch, which Rogers described as "literally a West Elm doorstop that we yassified with spray paint and glue," you can actually purchase it from West Elm.
See the complete list of Las Culturistas winners here. The Las Culturistas Awards was originally a creation of Rogers and Yang for their weekly podcast Las Culturistas (which gets a shoutout in Purpose on Broadway), where they highlighted parts of high and low culture that they loved. Said Rogers on Tuesday night: "We never intended to do a real awards show at all." Added Yang: "But here we are, thanks to the honestly terrifying, Swiftie-level dedication of our fans."
