The Emmys Were Good In Spite of Nate Bargatze

The likable Nate Bargatze hosted this year’s Primetime Emmy telecast and got off to a decent start, substituting the typical awards show monologue with a variation on the George Washington SNL sketch (with assists from Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson, and Mikey Day) that made him famous outside of stand-up comedy circles. He hit the right tone, poking fun more at the industry than at individuals.

From there, unfortunately, it was mostly downhill for Bargatze. He introduced the idea of limiting acceptance speeches (to a mere 45 seconds) by telling winners that, for every second they went over, he’d deduct $1,000 from a $100,000 donation he’d be making to the Boys & Girls Club (and add $1,000 for every second winners went under). It was a semi-amusing idea in theory, but in practice, it was a disaster. He essentially used shame to rush winners into shorter speeches, leaving them feeling harried and pressured.

It wasn’t just that — although it was a lot of that — but for the rest of the show, that’s all Bargatze did: keep tabs on the donation amount. He brought out J.B. Smoove and a couple of Boys & Girls Club kids to stress the point and spent a lot of time talking about donation amounts that could’ve been used for speeches. He had nothing else in his arsenal, and the bit ran the entirety of the telecast up until the very end when, predictably, he ignored the tally and made his own $250,000 donation (in addition to a $100,000 donation from CBS). It was a generous gesture, but it ultimately made for lousy television.

Not that it didn’t provide a few amusing moments. After giving a very brief speech, John Oliver ended with, “f*** you, Nate Bargatze, that is a lot of money for you.” And Seth Rogen, who gave multiple speeches over the course of the night for wins for The Studio, probably felt some relief that he didn’t have to pad his speeches. But mostly, the pressure winners felt to deliver short speeches ended up stressing both them and the audience, especially when someone like 15-year-old Owen Cooper wanted to say something inspirational for other kids, or when Lorne Michaels ran way over because he’s an 80-year-old man who speaks slowly.

That said, the two best speeches came from winners who mostly ignored the time limits: Hannah Einbinder, who won her first Emmy after four nominations, ended her speech with, “Free Palestine, F**k ICE, and Go Birds,” one of the night’s few political moments. And then there was Cristin Milioti, who — along with Stephen Colbert — gave the best speech of the night with an almost Cuba Gooding Jr.-like level of enthusiasm (though even she felt rushed).

And it really was a wonderful moment for Colbert and company after winning his first Emmy, coming after CBS canceled The Late Show. (Honestly, I’d have felt bad for The Daily Show or Jimmy Kimmel if they’d won, because it was clear in the auditorium that everyone wanted Colbert to take it.)

Speaking of Cristin Milioti, she was among many winners last night who were not only first-time winners but first-time nominees, including Tramell Tillman (Severance), Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt), Britt Lower (Severance — whose speech card included the phrase “Let Me Out” on the back in a nod to the show) — Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty from Adolescence, and Jeff Hiller for Somebody Somewhere, who also gave a standout speech.

There were a few big winners on the night: The Studio for comedy, Adolescence for limited series, and while Severance and The Pitt split the acting awards in drama, it was The Pitt that ultimately took home the biggest prize, Best Drama (deservedly). And while there was very little politics in these rushed speeches, winners — stressed about cramming one of the biggest moments of their lives into 45 seconds — still managed to nod to the power of storytelling, the way it connects us, and the importance of compassion and empathy, which in itself feels political in America right now.

It was not the most exciting Emmys telecast, but it was dotted with feel-good moments, and to Bargatze’s credit, he did keep the runtime to barely over three hours. Still, a number of cuts — Reba’s “Thank You for Being a Friend,” Lainey Wilson and Vince Gill’s In Memoriam song (which ran several minutes longer than it needed to), Jennifer Coolidge’s never-ending presenter speech, and Bargatze’s obsession with the donation tally — could have been better spent on winners’ speeches, making for a more relaxed show focused on what the audience was really there to see: the winners. The local news gets pushed back all the time for NFL games; I think it’s OK once a year to push it back 20 minutes so that Noah Wyle can properly thank his wife.