Stephen Colbert is a nine-time Emmy winner for his work on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and now his role as the host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is giving him the chance to host the biggest show in television himself.
CBS Entertainment’s Executive VP of Specials, Music, and Live Events said of the decision,
“We’re excited to kick off the new season and celebrate the top achievements in television with Stephen Colbert as host of the Primetime Emmys. Stephen is the ultimate master of ceremonies with award-winning creative talents, and as we’ve seen the past few months, he has a fearless passion for live television. We look forward to honoring television’s best while entertaining audiences with the creative energy and sharp comedy of Stephen Colbert.”
This isn’t exactly a shocking choice, seeing as the Emmys are on CBS this year and as such one of their hosts has to take the helm, as is practically required due to recent trends. Since James Corden is hosting the Grammys in a few short weeks and hosted the Tony Awards last year, Colbert is definitely the more strategic and smart choice so as not to overexpose one late night host over another. Colbert could use a popularity push as well, so this is an easy way to kill two birds with one stone.
Again, this is far from a new idea. Pretty much every network that has the rights to broadcast an awards show tries once, if not many more times, to give the spotlight to one of their own hosts. Free PR is the best PR. Just in recent memory Corden has hosted the Tony’s, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon have gotten Emmy duty, Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart took on the big job of hosting the Oscars, and Jimmy Fallon was this year’s Golden Globes MC. It makes sense, after all, to hand the reins to a comedian who is used to making people laugh and improvise when needed. The fact that a few hours of free promotional time for their respective host’s comedic skills is built into the show is a huge perk on top of that, so this trend isn’t ending any time soon.
Of course, as has been the trend over the days since Trump’s inauguration, Colbert used the announcement as an opportunity to poke fun at the President. In reference to projected audience numbers for the show, Colbert said,
“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period. Both in person and around the globe.”
The way things are going politically, that probably won’t be the last Trump joke that Colbert uses to promote the show. This years Emmys will air on Sunday, September 17th and will serve as the usual Game of Thrones-based television Hunger Games.