By now, most have likely heard the narrative about the impending demise of late-night television: it’s lost its ratings, it’s lost its relevance, it’s lost its luster.
The ratings are never coming back, but how’s this for luster? No other genre of television came anywhere close to late night in racking up Emmy nominations for 2025, announced Tuesday morning.
How does 31 nominations for Saturday Night Live sound? Irrelevant?
The TV Academy even cut back the number of shows that could get nominated in the chief late-night category, Outstanding Talk Series—which had the effect of cheating Seth Meyers out of an almost-sure nomination.
But still: there were twelve nominations overall for The Daily Show, six for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, four for Jimmy Kimmel Live, two for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and one for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Meyers also got one—for his short-form web-exclusive series “Corrections”, which may be small comfort, but it was recognition nonetheless.
After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson also got one nomination—its first—even after it closed for business last month.
And Conan O’Brien racked up three nominations, even though he’s no longer an active late-night star. (He always will be to his fans, of course.)
Even a sitcom about late-night television got 14. That was Hacks on HBO Max, which was among the most-nominated individual shows of the year.
Of course, none of this changes reality. A key part of the premise of Hacks this season was that a network, desperate to revive excitement about its traditional late-night show, brings back a legendary female comic to host its sliding franchise.
As for those record-breaking 31 SNL nominations, the sketch series was able to pile up quite a lot of extra credit this year with all of its ancillary specials and event programs—from the 50th anniversary show itself to the concert special and various documentaries about the show.
Still, unquestionably, the award attention on Emmy nomination day skewed—perhaps incongruously—toward late-night programs, even as the genre’s future is under seemingly endless scrutiny and skepticism.
How to account for this?
Beyond the special circumstances of this year, the truth is that late-night entertainment retains a place in American culture that defies, at least for now, the diminishment of the concept of broadcasting.
Almost nothing outside of the major sports leagues has the power to create personalities with genuine national recognition—like Saturday Night Live and the other established franchises of late night.
The next most-nominated show on this year’s Emmy list, Severance on Apple TV+, is certainly talked-about in certain circles, but not chock full of star names familiar to most Americans.
And all the nominated dramas and comedies only release episodes for a small sliver of each year. The Studio has 23 nominations but produced only 10 episodes. SNL still does double that every year, while the network late-night talkers do four shows a week.
The people who vote on the Emmy nominations clearly still have these shows front of mind. Partly, it’s familiarity: the Emmys are famous for nominating the same shows year after year.
But partly, it’s respect.
Almost no one in the television industry is unfamiliar with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jon Stewart. Absolutely no one in the industry is unfamiliar with Saturday Night Live.
Beyond a degree of longevity, what those shows have in common is a traditional comedic instinct to challenge authority.
And authority tends to notice. Presidents have squirmed under the monologue skewering by late-night hosts since deep into the previous century.
But as in many other things, Donald Trump has set a new standard. He has called out late-night hosts by name, repeatedly—as well as the SNL caricature artists who’ve taken him on.
Judging from the Emmy nominations, his efforts have had zero impact—so far. The voters have selected the most outspoken Trump critics in the late-night business: Stewart, Colbert, and Kimmel.
The growing question is whether those hosts will be able to count on their own corporate owners to back them as much as the Emmy voters do.
The looming change in ownership at Paramount, which owns both CBS and Comedy Central, has added an element of suspense to the future of two of the hosts: Stewart and Colbert.
Given the federal government’s heavy hand in the approval process of Skydance Media’s merger with Paramount, speculation has bubbled up about Skydance pulling the seats behind the desk out from under Stewart and Colbert as a friendly gesture to Trump.
The Emmy voting was closed before stories about that threat to the two hosts began to appear. So that had nothing to do with their continued Emmy support.
What it seems to have most to do with is admiration for the talent and commitment of the nominated late-night hosts.
So far, neither of those two hosts—nor Jimmy Kimmel, who’s been out of the line of fire on vacation this summer—has shown the least sign of backing off to anticipate whatever arrangements management may plan to pacify Trump.
Nor should anyone expect them to. Ever.
If they did, the “losing luster” talk would be deafening.
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