It was a night of ups and downs that thankfully, and finally, ended up in the positive, when first-time Emmys host Nate Bargatze announced that the Boys & Girls Club of America would be receiving a donation of $350,000.
His strategy for the night worked, for the most part: Who needs music to play winners off when they had a money counter to keep them on track?
Bargatze’s plan started with his announcement at the top of the show that he was going to donate $100,000 to the charity, and either subtract money from that total every time a winner went over their allotted time of 45 seconds during an acceptance speech — or add money back if they kept it under that time limit. The lark had stars hilariously trying to beat the clock, or make offhanded remarks about how they went over.
Hollywood, for the most part, loves the kids and John Oliver was super fast with his remarks, which helped make up for some of the deficit due to some of the longer-winded winners. That caused Bargatze to quip that Oliver had “won enough.”
“The Studio’s” writing team had a smoothly well-choreographed acceptance speech which also cost Bargatze some money.
When a win for Netflix’s hit drama “Adolescence” caused the counter to drop to $36,000, he joked “That was a show called ‘Adolescence’ that did that to adolescents.”
Not that the host was a total stickler.
He put money back on the books after 15-year-old Owen Cooper made history, and went over the 45 seconds allotted, with his supporting actor in a limited or anthology series win for his role in “Adolescence.”
Still, at the end of the show Bargatze announced that the number had gotten “embarrassing” so CBS was kicking in $100,000 and he was upping his ante to $250,00, for the grand total of $350,00 for the kids.
Well done, all around.
CNN’s Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this report