Runs

Nate Bargatze, the immensely popular stand-up comedian who admitted near the top of Sunday night’s Emmys telecast that he’s less well-established in Hollywood proper, was always going to have his work cut out for him as the host of television’s most prestigious awards show. By hiring the Nashville, TN native known for self-deprecating humor and charming nonchalance, CBS and producers Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon, and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay were taking aim at an audience outside the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Bargatze’s everyman appeal lies not with the famous actors and directors gathered to celebrate their best work, but with onlookers who otherwise may not think to watch the Emmys on a night where they could catch an NFL game, an MLB game, or the theme park ride-turned feature film “Jungle Cruise” (on ABC!).

So when his latest and most formal gig began with a sketch — harkening back to his most renowned small-screen success to date: the “Washington’s Dream” sketch on “SNL” — there was reason to believe he’d be able to walk the fine line between sincerely honoring artistic accomplishments and poking fun at those being honored (and, presumably, himself). It’s the host’s eternal struggle, after all: combining the ceremony’s three main genres — comedy, drama, and limited series — into one fun, moving, and snappy show.

Well, “snappy” is a nice way of putting what followed.

While many bad bits are often used to reference infamous awards shows (“Remember when Seth MacFarlane sang ‘I Saw Your Boobs’ at the Oscars?”), it’s rare for a single bit to be so disastrous it tarnishes the entire three-hour production as it’s happening. Then again, it’s also rare for a host to go on live television and hold charity money hostage — his only demand being that those lucky enough to win keep their speeches so short they’re either rushed, forgettable, or bleeped into oblivion.

The rules were simple enough: Winners would be limited to 45 seconds for each speech and penalized $1,000 for every second they go over. If they finished early, Bargatze would donate an extra $1,000 for every second they were under, but the latter situation clearly wasn’t going to outpace the former, and even if it did, the best-case scenario would have been that the show finished early, the speeches were all whittled down to nothing, and the 2025 Emmys telecast was remembered for… ruthless efficiency?

Many viewers took issue with the idea right away, before the donation ticker appeared next to Emmy recipients as they were still speaking, or was cited as a reason for wrapping up before they could remember what they wanted to say, or when it was clear Bargatze wrote 90 percent of his jokes pegged to how much money he was or wasn’t donating to the Boys and Girls Club of America. (And why did those jokes all follow the same structure? It felt like Bargatze said some version of, “That last speech cost me money/saved me money” roughly 19 times.)

Aren’t the speeches why people watch the Emmys? Aren’t the honorees supposed to be thinking about their colleagues, families, and friends, and not how many tens of thousands of dollars thanking them will cost children in need? Shouldn’t they feel proud of their accomplishment by the end, and not ashamed of how many seconds they took up acknowledging it?

And from the audience’s point of view, do we want to be screaming at our favorite TV stars to hurry up and get off the stage? Do we want to feel guilty for savoring those fragile moments when they take a second to fight back the tears and find just the right words? Would everyone prefer if they just sent out the list of winners as an email? That’s the most efficient way to do it!

The Emmys, for two years in a row and too many years overall, have felt driven more by embarrassment for existing than pride for the mission at hand. Why so many producers feel the need to cater awards shows to people who don’t like awards, I’ll never understand, but the 77th Emmy Awards did little to counter that imbalance, no matter what the final balance of Bargatze’s charity offering turned out to be. (CBS ended up donating $100,000 to Bargatze’s $250,000 for a total of $350,000, after the tracker plunged well into the red following the final few speeches.)

Still, there were highs on the night, and none were higher than when Stephen Colbert sprinted to the stage after winning Best Talk Show for the soon-to-be-canceled “The Late Show.”

“Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it,” he said. “Ten years [after starting the show], in September of 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”

That sentence may have cost the Boys and Girls Club a few thousand dollars, but in the moment, no one cared — which is how it’s supposed to feel. We’re all supposed to get caught up in the moment. We’re all supposed to share in the excitement. We’re all not supposed to be hoping for a polite nod, a curt word, and then onto the next terse speaker. Colbert’s glee gave his well-written speech an extra oomph, and the crowd was eager to hear anything and everything he had to say. One could even argue they were starved for a heartfelt and inspiring address on a night designed to keep them at bay. (Thank goodness for Hannah Einbinder, as well, whose years-in-the-making speech made a salient political point and came straight from the heart — in just six short words.)

Cristin Milioti’s exuberant win for “The Penguin” stood out in similarly unconstrained fashion, when the long-toiling actress earned her first Emmy (for her first nomination) and let loose on stage. Grinning ear to ear yet clearly overwhelmed by the moment, Milioti notably only broke from her earnest thanks and overt enthusiasm when she noticed her time was about to run out. (“Are you kidding?” she said. “Wow, this really speeds.”) But that didn’t stop her from shouting, “I love you, and I love acting so much!” before letting out an actual scream to end it.

Would the show have been notably better without those nods to love, art, and humanity itself? I think not! Nor would the night be better served by Jeff Hiller — adorned in sparkling pink suit — had faded quietly into the background. “The last 25 years I’ve been like, ‘World, I want to be an actor,’ and the world is like, ‘Maybe computers?’” he said, accepting Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in “Somebody Somewhere.” Thank goodness the Emmy statue, if not the Emmy telecast, spoke up on behalf of a world eager for more of his acting.

Beyond the misjudged charity gambit, the 2025 Emmys also suffered from a general lack of enthusiasm for its honorees — and fans of awards shows in general. There were no clips for the nominees and shockingly few examples of their work shown during the broadcast. The reunions (if you can call them that) did little to stoke nostalgia for shows like “Gilmore Girls” and “Law & Order.” The celebrities in attendance (when they weren’t being hurried off-stage) weren’t well-utilized either. JB Smoove talking to Ben Stiller should be good for at least one laugh, but it was like Stiller had no idea what was happening! Were there no rehearsals this year?

Even Bargatze’s opening sketch felt casually slapped together. As Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, Bargatze joked that people don’t actually understand “Severance,” no one knows what a producer does, and only women watch true-crime TV. His few sharper jokes — “What is streaming, sir?” “A new way for people to lose money” — teased better quips to come (like when he alluded to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger while introducing “Gilmore Girls”), but Bargatze didn’t even give himself enough time to get there. He didn’t do a monologue, and instead moved from the sketch to the first category before returning to introduce the doomed charity speech timer.

“If you want to say more, do it on social media later,” he said. “More people will see it there anyway.”

That may be true, but you still have to put on a show for the people in the auditorium, and the speeches are the show. Don’t be so embarrassed to admit it.

Grade: D+

The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards were held Sunday, September 14 at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, CA. The telecast aired on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+.