Stephen Colbert salvaged the 2025 Emmy Awards, on a night when nobody else could. He was the show’s big winner, in terms of actual memorable moments. Colbert’s always had a knack for rising to the big occasion, but he turned this Emmys evening into a total humiliation for CBS, the network trying to censor him by killing off his show. On a night when the official host, first-and-last-timer Nate Bargatze, looked like a terrified rookie blinking “help” in Morse code at the camera, Colbert came to the rescue — the grown-up in the room, turning a painfully inept award ceremony into a night to remember.
Colbert stole the show right from the start, as the first presenter. After the crowd gave him an explosive standing ovation and a “Stephen! Stephen!” chant, he asked, “While I have your attention: Is anyone hiring?” Then he handed his resume to Harrison Ford. It was a cathartic joke after the year’s most shocking TV story — CBS snuffing the entire Late Show franchise, in what sure looked like a political corporate suck-up to the White House. So his big win, near the end of the ceremony, was a dramatic moment — presenter Bryan Cranston really gave it a schtickle of fluoride. But Colbert rose to it with his emotionally powerful speech. “In September 2025 I have never loved my country more desperately,” he said. “God bless America. Stay strong. Be brave. And if the elevator tries to break you down, go crazy — and punch a higher floor!” The Prince quote was the perfect capper to an Emmy night when nobody in charge seemed to know what they were doing.
Early on, there was a clumsy tribute to The Golden Girls that Blanche would have ripped to shreds. But that was fitting, because as Blanche would have said, Nate Bargatze looked jumpier than a virgin at a prison rodeo. He was a walking, talking puddle of flop sweat, giving a master class in how not to host an award show. Everybody knows how brilliant this guy can be, on SNL and his stand-up specials. Everybody was rooting for him. But he had no idea how to do this kind of gig, the kind where it’s not all about him. A host’s job is making a few jokes, then staying out of the stars’ way. But the more nervous he got, the harder he kept trying to make himself the center of attention, with disastrous results.
Bargatze started strong with a great cold open, redoing his SNL “Washington’s Dream” sketch, with jokes about the invention of TV, featuring SNL’s Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson, and Mikey Day. “One day I dream there will be so many shows, we’ll have to invent another type of TV called streaming,” Bartgaze declared. When asked to define streaming, he replied, “A new way for companies to lose money.”
If only he’d quit while he was ahead. But he introduced a long-running joke about donation to a children’s charity, and deducting money for stars who talked more than 45 seconds. This gag was a cumbersome ball and chain he tied around the rest of the show, and a seasoned pro would have ditched it the first couple of times it bombed. After the first hour, it was impossible to guess why he was still trying to flog this joke — except he had nothing else in the bag. Oh, it was ugly.
Fun fact: The whole reason we watch award shows is to see the stars have a moment that’s personal and spontaneous and real. Their speeches are what an award show is. Treating the stars as enemies to be policed was a massive gaffe, especially as Nate’s bits about it got longer, shriller, and unfunnier. (His joke about losing to Mark Twain was 49 seconds.)
Last year, John Oliver’s Emmys speech was a comic masterpiece — the highlight of the night. The orchestra tried to play him off, while he talked about his dead dog. “Fuck you! I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now!” he yelled, dedicating his award to “All dogs! All dogs! You’re very good girls, very good boys, you all deserve a treat!” Then he dared the orchestra, “Play me off NOW!” That was genius — the only reason anyone even remembers the show. But tonight, all Oliver could do at the podium was a one-note talking-fast bit and walk off. Emmy night with no laughs from John Oliver is basically no Emmy night at all.
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Two minutes of Tina Fey was enough to put Bargatze in grim perspective. Naturally, he introduced her with the exact same joke Maya Rudolph made about Lorne Michaels last year, except with “36-time loser” instead of 85. Fey, who wouldn’t be caught dead hosting this show, killed as she presented the award for Outstanding Live Variety Special, with nominees including SNL, the Beyoncé Bowl, and Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. “If Kendrick wins, I’m really gonna hear it from Drake,” she quipped. “And Drake and I are supposed to play pickleball tomorrow.” The camera couldn’t find anyone in the audience who got the joke.
Fey handing the award to her mentor Lorne Michaels was an emotional moment — or would have been, except the cameras suddenly cut away, for no reason at all. “I won this award for the first time 50 years ago in 1975,” Michaels said onstage. “I was younger and I had a lot of dreams about what would happen in my life, and not one of those dreams was that I’d still be doing the same show for the next 50 years.” But he signed off with a great punch line: “I want to thank the Academy for keeping the word Television in their name.”
Adolescence was one of the night’s big winners, providing some truly beautiful moments — especially 15-year-old winner Owen Cooper, speaking from the heart in his awesomely too-big suit. “I think tonight proves that if you listen and you focus and you step out of your comfort zone, you can achieve anything,” Cooper said during his speech. “I was nothing about three years ago. I’m here now. Who cares if you get embarrassed?” Adolescence also scored acting wins for his castmates Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty.
There was a great Gilmore Girls reunion with Lauren Graham and Alexis Beidel saying, “Twenty-five years ago, a show called Gilmore Girls premiered, and apparently took the season of fall hostage.” They reminisced about their drama’s low ratings and low budgets back in the day. “We walked in circles in Burbank saying, ‘Hey, look how Connecticut it is here today,’” Graham recalled, as Beidel added, “We saved up all year long to have one snow episode!”
There was also a gathering of Law & Order veterans — Ice T, Christopher Meloni, Tony Goldwyn —testifying to the greatness of Mariska Hargitay. “She’s been on SVU for 27 years,” S. Epatha Merkerson said. “That’s longer than some of you have been in therapy because of SVU.” Seth Rogen won three times for The Studio, while Jeff Hiller scored a welcome surprise win for Somebody Somewhere. The Pitt also won big, taking Outstanding Drama, with acting wins for Katherine LaNasa and Noah Wyle. The Traitors won Best Reality Competition — well-deserved — with Alan Cumming claiming the prize.
Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson won the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. I am ardently in favor of anything nice that ever happens to Mary Steenburgen. Cristin Milioti, winner for The Penguin, read a speech she wrote on the back of her therapy notes, asking the audience, “Don’t look at the back.” When Britt Lower won for Severance, her speech had “let me out” written in tiny letters on the back — if you know, you know. Her castmate Tramell Tillman became the first Black man to win Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama, thanking inspirations like Ossie Davis and Michael K. Williams. Hannah Einbinder won for Hacks, giving the night’s only blatantly controversial speech, signing off with “Fuck ICE and free Palestine.” Her Hacks castmate Jean Smart also won, after a hilariously rambling routine from Jennifer Coolidge, who seemed to be winging it — but kinda proved that “famous people winging it” is peak Emmys.
“My wife owns half of this, and not just because it’s California law,” Wyle said, after winning for The Pitt, 26 years after his last nomination for E.R. Kieran Culkin didn’t win anything, because Succession no longer exists, and I, for one, think that sucks, because I miss that crazy kid and I need him to keep oversharing at award shows. Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow, from The Hunting Wives, made their second presenting appearance of the month, after last week’s VMAs — always cool how Akerman upholds the noble legacy of The Comeback and Children’s Hospital. Pedro Pascal looked natty in his all-white suit — nice to see him strut his stuff with some dignity, after suffering this summer in the butt-stupidest flick Dakota Johnson has been in. (Or was that just a bad dream?) Jude Law looked glam all night, making it all the more offensive that we haven’t gotten The Young Pope 2: I Am the Resurrection yet.
You know the Emmys have gone all wonky when one of the highlights is the speech from the Television Academy chairman. In any other year, the speech inspires fast-forwarding and/or bitchy heckles, like the hilarious moment in 2021 when Conan O’Brien jumped up, saluted, and led the crowd in a sarcastic ovation. But this year, Cris Abrego held everyone’s attention with a tough, candid, politically aggressive speech about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is dying because “Congress has voted to defund it.” On an Emmy night that felt so lamely timid, it was bracing to hear him declare, “Culture rises from the bottom up,” with Selena Gomez clapping wildly. Too bad the chairman wasn’t hosting.
Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson sang the In Memoriam tribute — a tastefully understated performance, from two beautiful country voices. If my unfortunately encyclopedic memory for trashy awards shows serves, it’s only the second time in recent history that the In Memoriam song has been all about Jesus. (The first: the jazz-hands “Spirit in the Sky” debacle at the 2022 Oscars, not a precedent anyone would want to follow.) They sang “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” a deeply personal hymn Gill wrote for his late brother, though perhaps a surprising choice to dedicate to Ozzy Osbourne and David Lynch. The montage paid tribute to the beloved TV legends we’ve lost this year. Phylicia Rashad gave a heartfelt tribute to her Cosby Show son Malcolm Jamal-Warner.
It was poignant to see so many badass 1970s heroines, pioneers like Teri Garr, Linda Lavin, Ruth Buzzi, Loretta Swit, and damn right, Loni Anderson. (Polly Holliday, Lavin’s fellow waitress at Mel’s Diner, got left out after passing last week. Weirdly, they also left out Jonathan Joss from King of the Hill.) For some reason, the big In Memoriam Applause-O-Meter ovations were for TV and movie people — Ozzy, Lynch, Maggie Smith, Quincy Jones. Yet the claps were surprisingly muted for the TV lifers. WTF, audience members — you couldn’t clap louder for Loni? What are you, cold-blooded monsters? Even Les Nessman would have cheered for her. But as a fan of Pee-wee Herman, Aerosmith, and Alicia Silverstone, it was cool to see Marty Callner in there. And the late great John Amos was pure gravitas, delivering that no-nonsense James Evans glare from Good Times — keeping his head above water, making a wave because he can.
As for Nate’s tiresome donation gag, anybody who’s ever watched TV before knew from the beginning how it would end: The children’s charity got their full donation and more. You have to suspect CBS threw more money into the pot when they saw how bad the gag was bombing. It’ll go down in history alongside Letterman’s Oscars “Umaaaa, Opraaaah” gag as a cautionary tale for ill-prepared hosts — sometimes repeating a failed joke all night doesn’t make it funnier, who knew? Bargatze’s flop surely won’t hurt his rising star at all — there’s plenty of evidence of how great he is at stand-up, in his own comfort zone. But at the Emmys, he was lucky to have Colbert on hand to take over as the real master of ceremonies.
From Rolling Stone US
