After Stephen Colbert showed off his musical chops to kick off the 2017 Emmy Awards, his next big test as host would be the monologue. While many hosts managed to provide memorable openings, the monologues are where their talents truly need to shine in front of the big audience. Luckily Colbert had no trouble at all and even had some help along the way.
Not only did Colbert make a joke about Bill Maher’s n-word controversy that stopped the room, he managed to make plenty of jokes about Donald Trump without overwhelming anybody, and even got Sean Spicer to show up and help introduce the show. There was little doubt he’d bring politics into the mix and this ended up being on the same level as his sharpest The Late Show material.
Colbert also managed to hit all the marks on television’s current events, including some jokes about the HBO hacks, the rise of streaming giants like Netflix, and the resurgence of broadcast TV thanks to series like This Is Us. He even interacted with a few of TV’s breakout stars, like Billy Eichner, and made delivered a friendly rib to former Emmys host Seth Meyers.
Most will definitely talk about the Trump humor, though. Having Sean Spicer on hand is definitely a major moment and we even got to travel back to the debates when the president lamented his lack of an Emmy award on the national stage.
