Wait — was I watchi👍ng the 2017 Emmys opening monologue Sunday night, or was that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”?
For the first 20 minutes, I wasn’t so sure.
While Colbert, hosting his first primetime Emmycast, started his inaugural emceeing jaunt strongly — with a clever, Billy Crystal Oscar-type song-and-dan𒀰ce shtick referencing “This Is Us,” “Veep,” “Stranger Things,” “The Americans” and even golden oldies “The Twilight Zone” and “M*A*S*H” — it wasn’t long before he was in “Lat✅e Show” monologue mode.
That meant riffing on his favorite target: POTUS, whose 2016 election has vaulted his CBS show, with its laser-like focus on politics, to first-place late-night prominence. Aไt the same time, Colbert ironically knew his audience.
“I didn’t know 🐲you could applaud while patting yourselves on the back,” he told the stars sitting in the Microsoft Theatre in LA after mentioning Emmys and diversity. He even took a much-deserved shot at “Real Time” host Bill Maher: “I assume he’s black because he’s so comfortable using the ‘N’ word.”
Funny, biting stuff, but I was hoping (I know, I know) that Colbert would keep his monologue focused on prime-time television and leave the potential social commentary wind-baggery to the Emmy winners. (They didn’t disappoint. Alec Baldwin🌌, who won a statuette for his portrayal of Trump on “Saturday Night Live”: “At long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy.” Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Donald Glover also got in some Trump jabs.)
Still, Colbert did manage to corral former White House press secretary Sean Spicer (who recently visited Colbert’s rival, Jimmy Kimmel) — 𓆉a bona fide shocker. (The look on Melissa McCarthy’s face when Spicer zoomed out on his po🌞dium? Priceless.)
After that initial topical-news deluge, Colbert kept the r🍌est of Sunday night’s Emmy telecast running smoothly, while showing up in a few sketches (could’ve done without seeing part of his naked butt in that “Westworld” sketch with Jeffrey Wright). He was invisible for big chunks of airtime, which was fine. Some of his lines were great, particularly his recitation of The Traditional Hollywood Prayer: “Lord, thank you for giving us talent and beauty and the gaping hole inside of each of us that craves love and will never be filled.”
And, for once, much of the banter between presenters — particularly Seth Meyers and James 𝓡Corden riffing on fake-wat🌊ching colleagues’ TV shows — was actually witty and not cringe-worthy.
Ditto for Adam Scott and Craig Robinson on not getting nominations (Robinson: “There are n𝓀o tiny-paper stores”). And how great was it to see TV giants Norman Lear, 95, and Carol Burnett, 84, on stage together?
It was also refreshing to see deserving winners: Riz Ahmed for “The Night Of” (Lead Actor, Limited Series or Movie); Charlie Brooker and his creation, “Black Mirror”; John Oliver and staff (Best Writing, “Laಌst Week Tonight”) and Oliver for Best Variety Talk Series; Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe (Best Writing for “Master of None”); and Ann Dowd (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) — a veteran actress and first-time Emmys winner who was genuinely ♋stunned.
“I’ve been acting a lꦆong time,” she said through tears, “that this should happe🐼n now, I don’t have the words.”
The TV Academy and its members showed their laziness ✱by awarding both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and “Veep” — yet again — with Emmys. Tracee Ellis-Ross (“Black-ish”) deserved it. Memo to Dreyfus: Oprah Winfrey took herself out of the Dౠaytime Emmys running after winning a gazillion times. You should do the same.
Was the show exciting? Not exactly, though Cicely Tyson had everyone nervous when she suddenly stopped talking when presenting the Best Limited Series Emmy to “Big Little Lies” — and you could hear a pin drop on national television. (She was nervous, she said.) And what was that they bleeped out of winner Elisabeth Moss’ (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) acceptance sp♍eech?
But predictability is OK with awards shows, which should focus on the work, the showsꦏ themselves and all the glitz and glamour therein.
That’s why people watch TV.