The late-night talk shows have produced a drumbeat of jokes and barbs about the current presidential campaign, with a recurring theme lamenting the same/old, same/old factor in the race (special emphasis on the “old.”)
But apparently same/old works just fine for Emmy nominators in the category occupied by the late-night shows: Outstanding Talk Series.
The nominees released today do have a familiar ring:
The Daily Show—with Jon Stewart back as the centerpiece of that show’s entry.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!—again cementing Kimmel’s rise to iconic status in this iconic TV category.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—nobody currently working has had two shows consistently nominated in this category over the past 20 years.
Late Night with Seth Meyers—continuing recognition for the fourth host of this NBC staple of late night.
Is that tradition at work? Sure looks like it: three nominations from legacy broadcast networks (remember them?)—ABC, CBS, NBC—and one for a legacy cable network (Comedy Central), all of which are supposed to be heading for extinction.
Somewhere John Mulaney and the creator of Hot Ones might be echoing Stewart’s memorable monologue from his comeback to The Daily Show this season (not coincidentally the episode TDS pushed for this nomination) when he laid out the contenders in the presidential race and exclaimed, as though raging to the heavens:
“Nine months to the election and the exciting part is we already know our candidates! It’s—drumroll, please—these f**king guys!” (Cut to photo of Biden and Trump.)
Officially this makes two (consecutive) nominations for Meyers’ show; 12 for Kimmel’s show; 20 for Colbert’s two shows (again, including The Colbert Report); and 18 for Stewart’s (with a long interregnum breaking up his run) in this category. Or similar. The late-night shows have bounced between “talk” and “variety” categories over the years.
You get the point. The TV academy has supplied lots of recognition already, and now has again, to “these f**king guys.”
That might be the perspective of the folks at Hot Ones or Everybody’s in LA, Mulaney’s much-buzzed about talk/variety week of shows on Netflix. You can easily make an argument for either of those two, based on things like originality or freshness; and frankly you can even question why one of the network’s late-night standard-bearers, Jimmy Fallon, was left out again.
Fallon’s snub isn’t entirely surprising because the attention in this category has always gone—in the past couple of decades anyway—to the noisier late-night shows, the ones most aggressively taking on “the man,” or whatever the source of power/corruption was perceived to be. Until John Oliver was elbowed out of this category last year and into one called Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, he was an automatic nominee (and winner) in this late-night group.
Fallon has followed his own path (and the dictates of where his talents lie) and gone much lighter in tone than the other late-night shows, making it much harder for him to score a nomination.
That was especially true this year because only four shows made list. The reason: there just aren’t as many shows even contending for a nomination in the talk category anymore, so fewer shows get on the nomination list. (In Oliver’s new category only two shows made it: his and Saturday Night Live.)
Eliminating one slot surely hurt both Hot Ones and Everybody’s in LA, despite their buzz-worthy status. Hot Ones might still have been an issue with some voters because it wasn’t even a television show for a long time (it now is because it gets play on Peacock, though it still originates on YouTube).
Mulaney’s entry may have been affected by having such a short run—six episodes versus double and triple digits for the other contenders—or by being a bit a shambolic in its production, though that was also considered part of its charm.
The result is four ultra-familiar nominees from the pre-streaming era. I didn’t check every nomination down to Outstanding Choreography and Lighting, so I’m not 100 percent sure this is true. But on first glance this may be the only category with absolutely no presence of a pure streaming show.
Does that mean the attitude of “these f**king guys” is legit?
I don’t think so. I can’t question the merits of any of these nominees. The shows—and their hosts—are still performing at a high level, and doing it more times a year than the people in every other category on the voluminous list of nominees released today.
They are also generating legitimate laughs with regular frequency, something that cannot be ascribed to many (some might say any) of the shows nominated in the Outstanding Comedy Series category.
If one thing has changed most drastically in the streaming era of television it is the diminution of reliable, big laughter. The Bear is a hugely popular and genuinely good television show—especially its second season, which is the one that scarfed up a record number of nominations for a comedy series.
But is it funny? Reliably funny? Laugh-out-loud funny? Rarely, at best. It is, however, brilliantly performed and a half-hour long, which is really what matters in the Outstanding Comedy Series category
The four shows in the Outstanding Talk Series category have stars who walk on stage multiple nights a week and deliver fresh, often brilliantly written comedy that makes you laugh, yes—and often think as well.
That’s worthy of recognition—every year.
