Stephen Colbert got a standing ovation at the Emmys as he handed out the first award of the night, and asked the audience: “Is anyone hiring?” Later he won the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series and received another standing ovation.
“Sometimes you only know how much you love something when you get a sense you might be losing it,” he said in his acceptance speech. He added that he has never loved America more, and quoted Prince’s hit song “Let’s Go Crazy.”
Colbert may have been fearing for his country’s future, but he was certainly acknowledging the loss of his show: In July, CBS, which aired this year’s Emmys, cancelled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert just days after Colbert criticized Paramount, which owns CBS, and the Trump Administration.
This year’s Emmys took place under heavy security because of the murder last week of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. And many onstage watched their words very carefully, because of several people who have been fired for comments deemed insensitive in the days after Kirk’s killing.
But not everyone self-censored: Hacks actress Hannah Eisbender was notably blunt as she accepted her Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and declared: “f— ICE, free Palestine.”
Background on Stephen Colbert and CBS at the Emmys
No one commented on the decision to have Colbert be the first person to directly address the Emmys audience Sunday night, and no one needed to: His placement near the top of the show was a statement in itself.
After asking if anyone was hiring, Colbert referred to himself and his staff: “I’ve got 200 very qualified candidates with me here tonight who will be available in June,” his said, referencing when his late-night show will end.
He also jokingly shared an outdated headshot, and asked Harrison Ford, sitting in the audience, to share it with Steven Spielberg.
In July, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a Trump lawsuit. Because the payment came as Paramount sought to seal a $1.5 billion sale — and hoped to avoid federal intervention — Colbert called it “a big fat bribe.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was cancelled days later.
Trump subsequently said on Truth Social that he was not to blame for Colbert’s cancellation.
“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night,” Trump wrote. “That is not true! The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!”
Nate Bargatze Offers Apolitical Emmys Jokes
Early in the show, it seemed like it might be an apolitical night.
Host Nate Bargatze, known for working clean and avoiding politics, eschewed a traditional monologue in favor of a funny live skit about Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television.
It recalled “Washington’s Dream,” a skit he performed while hosting Saturday Night Live, in which George Washington riffs on a futuristic system of weights and measures — the one we still use today.
The Emmy night skit featured guest appearances by SNL‘s Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson, who asked questions as Bargatze’s Farnsworth, decades ago, imagined the future of TV.
“One day there will be a channel for every interest,” he predicted. “The Travel Channel for travel. The Food Channel for food. And the History Channel…”
“For history?” Mikey Day’s character interjected.
“No,” said Bargatze’s Farnsworth. “Aliens.”
He also predicted that there would one day be a network called BET for Black audiences.
“Will there be a network for white people?” he was asked.
“Why CBS, of course,” Bargatze replied.
Then Colbert — now an 11-time Emmy winner — took the stage, to quip about losing his job and present the first award of the night. It went to Seth Rogen, who won best lead actor in a comedy series for his role as Matt Remnick, the head of Continental Studios on Apple TV+’s much praised The Studio.
Bargatze then returned to the stage to explain, in lieu of a monologue, that he would be donating $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and adding or subtracting money based on whether winners went over or under a 45-second time limit for their speeches. It became a running gag throughout the night.
Later, Televison Academy chair Cris Abrego called on the industry not to regress, but to keep fighting for inclusion and societal uplift, citing the long history of groundbreaking television shows, from All in the Family to South Park. (Throughout its current 27th season, South Park has notably mocked both the Trump Administration and Paramount, which owns Comedy Central, the network that airs South Park.)
In the end, the Emmy winners collectively went far over their scheduled speech time. But nonetheless, Bargatze pledged $250,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs, and CBS added another $100,000.
Main image: Nate Bargatze on the Emmys Red Carpet.