If you’re at least looking at the length of this year’s Emmy Awards, Sunday night’s running gag about the Boys & Girls Clubs was a success. That’s the word from Jesse Collins Entertainment producers Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jennae Rouzan-Clay, all of whom spoke with reports just minutes after the show wrapped at downtown Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre.

“The show wasn’t that long, so it worked,” said Rouzan-Clay — and she’s not wrong, The Emmys ended at around 8:02 p.m. PT/11:02 p.m. ET. At one point during the show, the winners were so good in adhering to keeping their speeches short that the Emmys was actually running short.

“Halfway through we were hovering around just like, a minute to two minutes over, and then it just started to spread a little bit,” Collins said. “It was just kind of ebbed and flowed all night.”

The idea of bringing the Boys & Girls Clubs into the Emmy mix came from host Nate Bargatze, and from there, the Emmys were all in. The idea: Bargatze would kick off the night by ponying up $100,000 for the charity. And then, he would subtract $1,000 for every second speeches went long — and add $1,000 for every second winners ended before the allotted 45-second time for thank yous. By the end of the night, the deficit was enormous — but CBS still contributed $100,000, with another $250,000 from Bargatze himself.

“I think it worked out well,” Collins said. “I mean, look, they came in expecting $100,000 and they ended with $350,000. So I think it was a win-win for the Boys & Girls Club.”

At the start of the evening, winners were taking Bargatze’s plan to heed and keeping their speeches relatively short; finally, by later in the evening, those thank yous were getting longer and folks on stage simply promised to add their own money to the pot. “I felt like most people spoke from the heart, and the people that had longer speeches still had longer speeches, and the people that had shorter ones kind of made moments of it, or maybe it was because they won multiple times,” Harmon said. “But I didn’t get the sense that somebody held something in because of that… There was a balance.”

Nate Bargatze (Sonja Flemming/CBS)
CBS

Here are some of the other burning questions from Sunday night’s Emmys:

Eric Dane dropped out as a presenter at the last minute, scrapping the producers’ plans for a reference to the 20th anniversary of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

As originally announced, Dane and fellow “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Jesse Williams were set to present the Emmy for directing for a drama series together. But Dane, who announced in April that he has been diagnosed with ALS, ultimately wasn’t able to attend.  

“I don’t know the details of that,” Collins said. “I just was told that he wasn’t able to make it. And fortunately, Jesse was able to present by himself.”

The original plan for Dane and Williams wasn’t elaborate; they were simply going to acknowledge the “Grey’s” anniversary. Without Dane, the producers decided to scrap the reference. “There wasn’t a set or anything, though,” Rouzan-Clay said. “It was just a celebration with the two of them.”

Host Nate Bargatze, Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson and Mikey Day (Sonja Flemming/CBS)
CBS

The opening “Philo T. Farnsworth” sketch, reminiscent of Bargatze’s “George Washington” skits on “Saturday Night Live,” was written by the show’s Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell. Given the “SNL”-ness of it (cast members Day, James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang appeared with Bargatze), it was also approved by “SNL” exec producer Lorne Michaels.

The sketch came together “probably three, four weeks ago,” Collins said. “It was great to be able to do that. And Lorne blessed it so that we could do it. We loved the flip on it, the George Washington tone, but the way they did it was brilliant.

After the sketch was created, the decision was made not to have Bargatze do a traditional monologue opener.

“Once  we locked in on the sketch that became the monologue,” Collins said. “Then he was in character. He wasn’t Nate at that point. So then it was a quick change after the award, and then it was more of a welcome to the show.”

Added Harmon: “And explaining the Boys & Girls Club piece.”

There were no major set pieces or segments that were scrapped for time this year.

“Nate had some stuff that was in his back pocket that he wound up not using,” Collins said. “But I think those were more creative choices.”

Bargatze’s denim joke — told while introducing presenter Sydney Sweeney — was indeed a reference to the recent controversy over her American Eagle denim campaign.

“Yes, that was his joke toward that,” Collins confirmed.

Stephen Colbert
CBS

Stephen Colbert was chosen as the night’s first presenter — handing out the lead actor in a comedy Emmy — to kick the show off with a powerful moment. And it worked: The entire Peacock Theatre gave Colbert a standing ovation.

“He deserved that,” said Harmon. Added Collins: “We all felt like it was a moment for him to walk out on that stage, to be the first award. And we were just glad that he was willing to do it. We felt like it would be a moment.”

And Rouzan-Clay said it was “a nice wrap-around at the end,” when Colbert gave a rousing speech as the talk show winner.

This year’s Emmys also opened with two big awards — right after Colbert and the comedy lead actor category, Jennifer Coolidge handed out the lead actress in a comedy series Emmy.

“We wanted to give Colbert an award with some weight to it, and then Jen Coolidge, and just like we had such great presenters that we were like, let’s do it,” Collins said. Added

Rouzan-Clay: “Also you want to keep your audience intrigued and engaged, too, from the beginning and then throughout. So you don’t want to front load it or have everything at the back.”

The Jesse Collins Entertainment team admits it was a bit unusual to be producing the Emmys when they were up for variety special (live) with two nominations (for “Beyoncé Bowl” and the Super Bowl Halftime).

“It is interesting when you’re up for something and it’s live, and you’re sitting there, like, ‘what’s going to happen?’” Harmon said.

The category, of course, ultimately went to “SNL50: The Anniversary Special.” “Lorne Michaels is an icon, obviously,” Collins said. “What he’s done with ‘SNL,’ it’s a great ending to the ‘SNL 50’ story.”

Beyoncé’s publicist was in the audience, but it was never quite clear whether Beyoncé and Jay-Z would attend the Emmys themselves.

“We figured it out when they weren’t in the seats,” Collins said. “’ Oh, you guys aren’t coming!’”

Reba McEntire with Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town (Sonja Flemming/CBS)
CBS

This year’s mix of reunions and tributes began with securing a segment devoted to “The Golden Girls.”

“We led with ‘Golden Girls,’” Rouzan-Clay said. “That was a big one. As soon as we realized it was 40 years to the day that the show was coming on, we knew we had to do ‘Golden Girls.’ And I think ‘Law and Order’ was actually the last one to come together. But we sort of set out with the ones we wanted to hit, and then we went after them. ‘Gilmore Girls’ was one of the ones that people are most excited about. So that was fun.”

Reba McEntire, who led the singalong of “The Golden Girls” theme song, suggested bringing on Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town.

“The thing about that song is it’s a country song, and we had a lot of help from Reba on casting it,” Collins told “Entertainment Tonight.” “And she loves those ladies. And we were like, Let’s just use the trio.”

Jeff Probst (Sonja Flemming/CBS)
CBS

The “Survivor” tribute featured real props from the show, courtesy host Jeff Probst.

“Jeff gave us props!” Collins said. The cutouts of Michaels and John Oliver, as part of a “tribal council” for who would win the scripted variety category, was a surprise to both contenders, however. “We went rogue, just on that one,” Rouzan-Clay said. Added Collins: “We’re just like, let’s just roll. Let’s not ask. We’ll apologize after!”

Harmon was at the Vatican just hours before the Emmys, producing the “Grace for the World”  live concert event for Disney+ at St. Peter’s Square co-directed by Pharrell Williams and Andrea Bocelli.

“It was on Disney+, and first concert ever in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican,” Harmon said. “We had John Legend, Andrea Bocelli, Pharrell, Jennifer Hudson, a ton of people. The big part was the drones. There were 3000 drones over the Vatican. It’s a really, really incredible show. We got on a plane 6 a.m. the next morning, landed here and came straight over. And here we are! I’m gonna sleep really well tonight.”

Collins and company won’t find out for a while whether they’ll be back to produce the Emmys for a fourth consecutive time — next year on NBC.

“Usually they take meetings in the spring,” Collins said. “So that’s when we would go in and make our pitch.”

Next up, Jesse Collins Entertainment will once again be a part of the Super Bowl halftime show producing team. But no, they’re not ready to share any details — including if Taylor Swift might indeed be the performer.

“I don’t even know who’s playing!” Collins quipped.