John Oliver once again beat Saturday Night Live.
HBO’s Last Week Tonight beat Lorne Michaels’ NBC show for the third straight year in the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series category.
It comes after the show, which launched on HBO in 2014, previously won seven consecutive times in the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category.
John Oliver thanked HBO and his team as well as his family in an incredibly short speech, helping Nate Bargatze’s charity jar, designed to keep the speeches tight and donate money to the Boys and Girls Club of America (a running bit from host Nate Bargatze during the awards that winners who go over their allotted 45 seconds will cause the amount of money to fall). After Oliver’s speech, the counter went back to $99,000.
“F*ck you, Nate Bargatze, that is a lot of money for you and you can add a f*ck to the swear jar as well,” he said before racing off the stage.
In 2023, the TV Academy shook up the categories last year, launching Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, alongside Outstanding Talk Series and moved Oliver into the former, going head-to-head with SNL, which had won the award for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series six years in a row starting in 2017.
It has been nominated for 73 Emmys and won 30. At the Creative Arts Emmys, though, it failed to win in directing, which went to The Late Show, and picture editing.
Oliver, who is contracted through to the end of the 2026 season, exec produces the series alongside Tim Carvell and Liz Stanton. It is produced by HBO in association with Peyance Productions and Avalon Television.
Backstage, after winning his award, Oliver addressed the future of late-night shows.
“I don’t know that they’re in danger. Sure, I think, I think TV shows are always under pressure for a whole bunch of different reasons. You can only really be in danger if you acknowledge that danger exists, right? So, we were in a different situation than commercial television. Thankfully, HBO have stood by us. They have no editorial input, which we appreciate very much. I think the Emmys probably help to tip any argument. I’m very, very grateful that if these Emmys do anything, they enable us to keep doing a show that doesn’t sound great when you describe it to someone.”
On Stephen Colbert’s win, Oliver added, “I think we all want Colbert to win. So yes, I really hope that happens, or I’m very sad that it didn’t. We’re all rooting for him.”
