Guess Who Was The Last Person Besides Letterman, Colbert, Or Stewart To Win A Late-Night Emmy

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As we all commiserate, freak out, predict the future of The Daily Show and look back on Jon Stewart’s time on itand before it — I ran across a striking statistic that didn’t totally surprise me, but also kind of blew my mind. Since 1997, only three shows have won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series (i.e., late-night show).

David Letterman’s The Late Show went on a streak from 1998 to 2002, after which Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show won in that category every year from 2003 until 2013. The last two years, that Emmy was awarded to The Colbert Report.

The hosts of all three of those shows will leave in a single, 12-month period. That’s crazy (although, obviously, John Oliver is next in line to start a streak).

But if you were curious, the last host of a late-night talk show to win an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series who wasn’t Letterman, Stewart or Colbert?

Tracey Ullman.

Ullman’s sketch show, Tracey Takes On won the award in 1997. Ullman also won in 1989 for The Tracey Ullman Show on Fox.

This fact has been brought to you by the Organization for Useless but Fascinating Trivia (OUFT).

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