LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nate Bargatze, the host of this yr’s Emmy Awards, kicked off the ceremony Sunday with a string of jokes poking enjoyable on the tv business.
The present opened with a sketch the place “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who performed tv inventor Philo T. Farnsworth. The viewers was heat to Bargatze’s jokes as he, whereas enjoying Farnsworth, opined on what the way forward for TV can be like.
“We create a world where the finest artists craft stories of staggering beauty that millions of people will watch on their phones while they’re sitting on the toilet,” Bargatze mentioned.
Bargatze, a 46-year-old stand-up comedian from Tennessee recognized for his pleasant type, was not a typical host. The gig left some questioning how Bargatze would strategy it.
Bargatze joked that 77th award ceremony is “not a big one, like 75 or 80, but it’s the one that gave me.”
“A lot of people are wondering, like, why am I hosting?” Bargatze mentioned. “I’m a stand up comedian. I’ve not had a ton of success in Hollywood, but let me tell you, boy, is it going good everywhere else.”
In the course of the opening sketch — which performed out very similar to Bargatze’s in style “SNL” skits the place he performed George Washington, Bargatze-as-Farnsworth laid out what the way forward for tv would appear like. The Studying Channel, he joked, can be the place “hoarders, people who eat couch cushions, Dr. Pimple Popper,” would dominate.
Bargatze went on to say that there can be Black Leisure Tv. When requested if there can be a community for white folks, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”
Bargatze mentioned streaming can be “a new way for companies to lose money.” Streaming providers, he mentioned, will create their very own stars, who can be “real-life murderers, mostly.”
Yang’s character assumed “the viewer pays the fee, so there are no ads,” to which Bargatze joked, “if only it were that simple.” When Johnson mentioned that’s unfair to the buyer, prompting Bargatze chastised him that, “We don’t say that out loud. Get out. Go sit in the back with the people who are probably going to lose anyway.”
The Emmys haven’t got a routine host, in contrast to different main awards reveals just like the Oscars, which has Conan O’Brien returning in 2026 and Nikki Glaser returning to host the Golden Globes. The final 4 Emmys have been hosted by Eugene and Dan Levy, Anthony Anderson, Kenan Thompson and Cedric the Entertainer.
“My parts will be dumb and silly,” Bargatze advised “Entertainment Tonight” on the purple carpet forward of the present.
Bargatze, who wrapped up three reveals in Denver on Saturday and Friday forward of the award ceremony, has emerged as some of the in style stand-up comedians as we speak. He bought greater than 1.2 million tickets in 2024, based on Pollstar and has launched three Netflix specials, together with December’s “Your Friend, Nate Bargatze” and has hosted “Saturday Night Live.”
Bargatze additionally dreamed up a inventive means to make sure winners preserve their acceptance speeches underneath the 45 second restrict. The comic pledged to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Ladies Membership. He mentioned he would deduct $1,000 for each second a winner goes over the allotted time and can add the identical quantity for each second underneath.
Seth Rogen’s acceptance speech for the primary class introduced, lead actor in a comedy sequence, was underneath the allotted time, which bumped the donation to $106,000.
“Don’t go crazy though cause like, I am paying for this,” Bargatze mentioned.
By the top of the present’s first hour, the overall had plummeted to $74,000. By the point the present was drawing to an in depth, with solely a few awards left, the tally was negative-$60,000.
