In a year when one of late-night’s most iconic franchises – The Late Show – was canceled, leading to a lot of questions about the sector’s future, TV Academy members certainly gave it a vote of confidence.
A tranche of Emmy wins for Saturday Night Live as well as its 50th anniversary special, as well as a trio of wins for The Daily Show, a first, and unlikely win, for Stephen Colbert’s canceled CBS show and a surprise Jimmy Kimmel victory at the Creative Arts Emmys should provide a small boost for a part of the television business that has had little to celebrate recently.
SNL and SNL50: The Anniversary Special took home 11 wins over the weekend in categories such as writing, directing, production design, sound mixing, makeup, hairstyling, picture editing, lighting and technical direction.
It came after the long-running NBC show scored its most Emmy nominations ever thanks to submitting its regular Season 50 as well as its celeb-filled anniversary special.
It was a big night for SNL as Deadline also revealed that Lorne Michaels’ cast shake-up ahead of Season 51 is now complete with a tranche of big stars including Michael Che and Bowen Yang confirmed to return.
The Daily Show also had a big night with three wins including two for Desi Lydic and one for Jordan Klepper. This tied the Comedy Central show’s record for three Emmy wins in a single year, having last achieved that in 2015. The show, which is hosted on Mondays by Jon Stewart, could break this record next Sunday if it can beat The Late Show to Outstanding Talk Series, having won it for the last two years.
Lydic picked up Outstanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series and Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series for her digital Daily Show spinoff Foxsplains.
Lydic’s colleague Jordan Klepper also won for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program for his The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation special. He beat HBO’s Chimp Crazy and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Netflix’s Martha and HBO Max’s Conan O’Brien Must Go.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won its first ever Emmy, less than two months after it was axed. Director Jim Hoskinson picked up the award for Outstanding Directing for Variety Series – a category that is normally won by Saturday Night Live.
Jimmy Kimmel also managed to get on the scoresheet, but not for his late-night show, which is nominated next week at the Primetime Emmys, but for hosting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
Kimmel and Lydic were both asked for their thoughts on the future of late-night after their wins.
Lydic said she hopes there’s a future for the genre. “I think there is certainly a need for catharsis right now and for laughter. We all need it. I’m hopeful that continues … We’re living in challenging times, that’s for sure. I feel so grateful I’ve been on The Daily Show for as long as I have. I sure hope we get to keep doing it.”
The host added that owner Paramount, which was behind the cancelation of The Late Show, hasn’t asked The Daily Show to change anything since it got a new owner in David Ellison’s Skydance. “We aren’t holding back and we don’t intend to,” she added.
Kimmel, however, didn’t want to get drawn into that conversation, despite saying his future in late-night is “something I think about a lot”. “Things have changed a lot over the last few years… each day is a new adventure and I kind of take them as they come,” he said.
O’Brien, who is no longer a late-night host since his Conan series ended in 2021, did have cause to celebrate himself despite losing out to Klepper in the writing category. The former Late Night and Tonight Show host won Outstanding Nonfiction Series or Special for his HBO Max travelogue.
All eyes will be on next week’s Primetime Emmys, where The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is the favorite to pick up the Outstanding Talk Series award.
The post Late-Night Has Had A Tough Year, But Big Emmy Wins For ‘SNL’, ‘The Daily Show’ & ‘The Late Show’ Are Cause To Celebrate appeared first on Deadline.
