The Late Show with Stephen Colbert writers’ DIY Emmy campaign may have been homemade, but it wasn’t a gag.
The writers released their homemade FYC video last weekend, framing it as something they made themselves because CBS was not doing an Emmy campaign “for us.” (CBS is still campaigning for The Late Show more broadly: a source familiar with the network’s Emmy campaign later told LateNighter that CBS has run an FYC campaign for the show, asking voters to consider it “in all categories.”)
The timing was no accident. Nominations-round voting closed early this week, and this year may represent the writers’ best chance yet to break Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s stranglehold on Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
The Late Show was nominated seven straight times from 2017 through 2023, but never won the category.
The math got tougher in 2024, when the writing category contracted from five nomination slots to three. The Late Show missed the cut that year, while Last Week Tonight, Saturday Night Live, and The Daily Show advanced. Oliver’s show went on to win again.
The timing of The Late Show’s cancellation announcement didn’t help the writers’ branch case last year. The news broke after nominations-round voting had closed, meaning the wave of industry support that helped carry the show itself to its first Talk Series win came too late to help get its writers onto the ballot.
This year, the dynamic is different. The show has already signed off. The goodwill is already in place. And the writers are making a direct appeal in a category where even landing a nomination has become a squeeze.
Just 11 programs submitted for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series this year, which under Emmy rules means only three nomination slots. The ballot listed The Daily Show, Have I Got News For You, Hot Ones, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Real Time With Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and The Traitors (yes, Emmy rules allow reality competition shows to submit in this category).
That’s a relatively small field, but not an easy one. Oliver remains the presumptive frontrunner. Saturday Night Live is always a factor. The Daily Show has Emmy momentum of its own. And Jimmy Kimmel Live!, like The Late Show, would seem to have a credible case for breaking through this year.
Which is why the writers’ DIY campaign matters. In a category with only three available slots, a broad show campaign is not the same thing as a writing campaign. Emmy voters are being asked to choose among some of television’s most established comedy rooms, and Colbert’s writers are trying to make sure theirs doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
Whether that’s enough to end Oliver’s streak remains to be seen. But after a farewell that rallied much of the entertainment community around Colbert, the Late Show’s writers have never had a better shot.
We’ll find out if they made the initial cut when Emmy nominations are announced July 8.
