‘The Daily Show' leads Best Talk Series Emmy odds amid outrage over the low number of available slots
Now this is something to talk about.
There's outrage in Hollywood over the expected number of nomination slots for the Best Talk Series Emmy. With only 13 submissions this year, the category is dropping from four nominees to a historic low of three. In this era of Peak TV, that simply doesn't seem like enough representation.
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In 2023, buoyed by industry complaints that Last Week Tonight With John Oliver kept winning the talk-show category despite not exactly being one, the Television Academy reimagined the variety races as Best Talk Series and Best Scripted Variety Series. The former is for programs that rely on unscripted moments such as interviewing guests, while the latter is for variety fare, essentially scripted from start to finish. That solved the John Oliver problem, but it also limited the number of submissions for each category. Last year, there were 14 entries for Best Talk Series, which yielded four nominees, and in the years prior there were almost always five nominees (there were 19 submissions in 2023 and 2022, 20 submissions in 2021, and 24 submissions in 2020).
Reigning champion The Daily Show, which now rotates hosts among Jon Stewart, Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, and Desi Lydic, is currently out front. In 2024, the long-running political gabfest welcomed back Stewart, who originally hosted from 1999 to 2015, to give his comedic take on the presidential election. He still hosts every Monday night, and he recently extended his contract through the end of 2025. A favorite of the TV Academy, Stewart has won a whopping 23 Emmys in his career, from 61 total nominations. "The only bad thing I can say about him is that he's very lazy and will only work one day a week," Lydic recently told Gold Derby in jest. "But that's great for all of us. We get to cover his shifts for the rest of the week."
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is in the runner-up position. The CBS program has been nominated every year since 2017, and before that, Colbert was up 10 different times as a producer for his satire program The Colbert Report, which took home the top trophy in 2013 and 2014. The last time a conventional talk show (i.e., those that start with a monologue and include desk bits and carefree celebrity interviews) claimed this Emmy was in 2002 for Late Show With David Letterman, so it's a fair assumption that voters have moved on from the format.
Disney/Randy Holmes
Also looking safe for a nomination is Jimmy Kimmel Live, in third place. ABC's perennial late-night program has enjoyed a run of 13 nominations in a row for Best Talk Series (2012-24), but it hasn't won an Emmy in any category since 2010 (for its costumes). Kimmel frequently goes viral with his take-downs of President Donald Trump and those in his cabinet. The entertainer has three Emmys to his name, but none for his talk show; he won for hosting the 2024 Oscars and for producing two installments of Live in Front of a Studio Audience in 2019 and 2020.
With only three slots in Best Talk Series, many great shows will be left out in the cold, including freshman Netflix entry Everybody's Live With John Mulaney, chicken wing talker Hot Ones, and the 11-year-old Late Night With Seth Meyers. Seth Meyers, who has been on the Emmy campaign trail in recent weeks, told Gold Derby, "I can't believe I'm still doing this, but there's literally nothing else I'd rather be doing."
Gold Derby's Emmy odds are based on the combined forecasts of more than 3,500 people (and counting), including experts we've polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc. Track the Emmy predictions by exploring all of our charts and graphs, and sound off in our TV forum.
PREDICTED NOMINEES
1. The Daily Show — 9/10 2. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — 18/5 3. Jimmy Kimmel Live — 13/2
POTENTIAL SPOILERS
4. Everybody's Live With John Mulaney — 12/1 5. Hot Ones — 37/1 6. Late Night With Seth Meyers — 75/1 7. Have I Got News for You — 100/1 8. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — 100/1
LONGSHOTS
9. Very Important People — 100/1 10. Hart to Heart — 100/1 11. Real Time With Bill Maher — 100/1 12. Midnight Snack with Julie Chan — 100/1 13. Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen — 100/1
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