Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | September 15, 2025
I’m not going to harp on Nate Bargatze’s bad hosting job at last night’s Emmys all day — last post, I promise (probably!) — because the entire Internet seems to be beating him up today over the awful Boys & Girls Club donation bit. As I wrote in my write-up this morning, it was the only bit he had in the entire show.
That apparently wasn’t true. There was another joke he tried, but until this interview with Variety, I had no idea it was supposed to be a joke. Watch the first 35 seconds here.
The pertinent section: “I have a blue-jean tux on for some reason. We had, like, a joke. There’s a cummerbund, and I forgot what it is. I don’t know. Alright. Please welcome two-time Emmy nominee, Sydney Sweeney.”
The blue-jean tux was a jokey reference to Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle controversy, which I didn’t realize until a Variety journalist asked the producers if that was supposed to be a joke. Now that I know it was supposed to be a reference, I’m still waiting on the “joke.”
Anyway, watch the rest of the clip for the lovely Owen Cooper speech. And if you’re wondering why the Bargatze joke about Sweeney fell flat, it may be because he was ill-prepared. He performed one stand-up show on Friday in Denver and two on Saturday night. The producers, however, inexplicably bragged about the amount of time Bargatze did give them: “He came in early before the shows. He was here all day, longer than we thought he was actually going to be. And then he flew out and did his shows.”
I know that Jimmy Kimmel and a number of other hosts have often complained that hosting an awards show is not only a thankless job, but that it takes months to prepare for. I guess Bargatze got around that by … inadequately preparing.
