2025 Emmys Will Avoid Political Jokes, Host Nate Bargatze Says
Don’t tune into tonight’s 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards on CBS expecting any political commentary from host Nate Bargatze. The comedian says he’s avoiding hot-button topics as he emcees the awards show.
During the Emmys press preview on Thursday, Entertainment Weekly asked Bargatze how political this year’s Emmys would get, to which he said, “Not. Not at all.”
Bargatze elaborated, saying, “I know there’s heartbreaking stuff that’s been happening right now, but I want this night to be an escape, and I think that’s why I was brought on. I think a lot of people are watching — and I know they watch my stand-up — for that reason, so I don’t want to break that trust I have in them, and just make the night a fun night.”
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The Emmys come just days after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah Valley University event, an incident that kicked off a political firestorm, especially on cable news. But Bargatze said 2025 Emmys joke writers “were never really going to do anything [political] to begin with” for the show.
“It was just trying to stay in the lane that we’re in,” he said. “I’m not above anything. It’s beyond me. It’s like, the saddest thing in the world. So let this night just be this night, and you know, everybody has to stress all day long, so I want to be just that one escape when they can turn something on and hopefully relax and just have fun.”
In fact, Bargatze’s inoffensive brand of comedy — The Atlantic called him “the nicest man in stand-up” — seems to have gotten him hired for the Emmys gig in the first place.
“At a time when so much comedy is polarizing — half the country loves it, half the country hates it — you have this genius in Nate, who’s just trying to bring us all together,” CBS CEO George Cheeks, a longtime Bargatze fan, told The Hollywood Reporter for a recent profile of this year’s Emmys host. “He’s not preachy, he’s not didactic, he’s just human — and to me, there’s nothing more refreshing.”
77th Primetime Emmy Awards, Sunday, September 14, 8/7c, CBS and Paramount+
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