Either it was a pretty predictable celebration of television or Stephen Colbert’s audition tape or perhaps both, but the 77th Primetime Emmys on Sunday sure ended up giving off a lot of Saturday Night Live midseason episode vibes.
From the opening creation-of-television skit with host Nate Bargatze joined by SNL’s Bowen Yang, Mikey Day and James Austin Johnson, the CBS-broadcast ceremony from the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles was very much like the Peacock network – and not in a good way.
The starting skit had the repeated tagline of “nobody knows” from SNL’s viral Bargatze-fronted “Washington’s Dream” segments, which was funny the first time. However, after that, the recently CBS-pink-slipped Colbert upstaged Bargatze by receiving the first standing ovation of the night as he handed out the opening award to The Studio’s Seth Rogen for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Looking at the big picture, Colbert may be the high-profile sacrificial lamb for the new Donald Trump-friendly regime at Paramount, but this was an Emmys that had no desire to reinvent the wheel, and, sadly, it showed.
(L-R) ‘The Studio’s Seth Rogen, ‘The Pitt‘s Noah Wyle and ‘Adolescence’s Erin Doherty
Christopher Polk / Myung J. Chun / Getty Images
It wasn’t much of a surprise that The Studio, The Pitt (we won’t call it a comeback, Noah Wyle) and Adolescence, with some standouts from Hacks, Severance and The Penguin’s Cristin Milioti on the side, well deservedly cleaned up. True, Somebody Somewhere’s Jeff Hiller taking the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series was a genuine shock. Everybody and their dog, and former Paramount boss Shari Redstone, knew The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was going to win and it did to chants of “Stephen, Stephen!” and a Prince reference from the man himself.
Stephen Colbert accepts the Outstanding Talk Series Emmy
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Otherwise, in a small-screen environment shifting focus faster than the ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery, it was as if the quaaludes kicked in way too early.
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On the red carpet earlier in the day, Bargatze promised the night would be fun, dumb and silly. Keeping to his even earlier promise of donating $100,000 to the Boys and Girls’ Clubs of America and subtracting money away for long speeches, the Grammy-nominated comedian was telling the truth in one of those three traits.
Hell, based on tonight’s safety-first ceremony and the languid pace established by Bargatze and reinforced by early presenter Jennifer Coolidge, maybe a telethon-themed Emmys wouldn’t be the worst idea ever.
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Sure, The Pitt’s Katherine LaNasa first cost the Boys and Girls some cash with her slightly longer speech near the top of the show. Yet, the time was spent going on and on with a gimmick that became tired and kind of mean-spirted quickly. In fact, rightful it should cost Bargatze himself some dough – certainly cost him some much needed laughs and cred.
And, as you knew there would be, the stakes were phony and weak. As Bargatze announced at the conclusion of the show, CBS ended up ponying up $100,000 and the host threw in more when the end sum went deep into the red — all of which meant the Boys and Girls Clubs of America getting a check for $350,000 out of a lot of people who couldn’t keep it short and sweet.
Truth be told, even with some on-screen factoids and thank yous, there are a few winners (let’s say Andor’s Dan Gilroy) who have more than 45 seconds of something to say. On top of that, punishing them and kids for going long ate up more than time. Maybe instead of ignoring politics, Trump, masked ICE abductions and the divisions ripping at America right now, the Paramount-owned network should have committed like first-time winner Hannah Einbinder did in her more than 45-second speech with a bleeped F-bomb about ICE and statement on the Middle East.
Hannah Einbinder accepts the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in ‘Hacks’
Christopher Polk
At least the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy-winning Hacks star was in the moment, unlike this bubble-wrapped show. I understand not wanting to offend Trump and suffer the White House’s wrath or have some portion of the population peeved, but if you want to embrace out-of-touch, this Emmys was the way to go.
Nate, you should have brought out that Swear Jar too, because this show was simply boring.
Really, would it have been too much for someone to make a quip about Sydney Sweeney’s culture-war-igniting American Eagle ad campaign? I mean, wouldn’t Sweeney have been the perfect person to do it when she was presenting in the second hour of the just over three-hour-long show?
I get what TV Academy boss Cris Abrego meant when he spoke of “cultural regression” during a circumspect segment on the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. Still, even proudly flying the flag of diversity as a strength, the Hyphenate CEO would have been hard-pressed to even get under the skin of hardcore Republicans who voted to take CPB’s funding away earlier this year.
On a much more serious note, would it have been too much to offer condolences to Charlie Kirk’s family?
Already facing a losing battle tonight against the Atlanta Falcons and the Minnesota Vikings on NBC’s and against YouTube every day, it was like the Emmys didn’t really want to try.
To paraphrase Paradise’s Julianne Nicholson, with wasting the time and talents of The White Lotus’ Walton Goggins and Parker Posey chatting about Thai food (as but one example), aiming for the milquetoast of “feel good TV” just wasn’t a winning strategy in this 249th year of the USA.
Lorne Michaels onstage at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards
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The first awards show of the now Skydance-owned Paramount empire, tonight’s Emmys didn’t even do much of a job promoting CBS shows. Lots of ads obviously, but on the show itself, there was only a nod for 25 years of Survivor. Even that very SNL-ish Jeff Probst-fronted sequence turned into a John Oliver (HBO) vs SNL (NBC) tribe vote with the former winning and giving a superfast vote with two bleeps. Later the SNL50: The Anniversary Special took home the Variety Special trophy with Lorne Michaels reminiscing about winning the award back in 1975 – and Bargatze made a point of thanking the SNL EP for the Emmy gig.
With the UFC coming to Paramount+ in the new year, where was the octagon when we needed it? That would have put some real money on the table for the Boys and Girls Clubs.
NBC, the ball is in your court next year. Don’t drop it.