Emmys Uses ‘SNL’ Cold Open to Begin the Show (VIDEO)
It is not Saturday night, and the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards aren’t taking place live from New York, but there were still some major Saturday Night Live vibes in the cold open for the awards show on Sunday (September 14) night.
This year’s Emmys host, Nate Bargatze, recruited SNL stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, and James Austin Johnson to help him with a “Washington’s Dream” circa Season 49-style sketch about the conceptualization of television that took shots at certain networks, along with the state of television as a whole, to begin the show on a funny note.
“I dream that one day, there’ll be a channel for every interest. A travel channel for travel, a food channel for food, and a history channel for history — no, aliens,” Bargartze said in a period-style monologue.
“There won’t be history on the history channel?” Day’s character asked in response.
“No. Just as there will be no learning on the learning channel,” Bargatze responded.
In another part of the segment, Bargartze added, “One day, I dream, there’ll be so many shows, we’ll have to invent another type of TV called streaming.
“What is streaming, sir?” Yang’s character asked.
“A new way for companies to lose money,” he answered. “These streamers will make their own shows and create their own stars.”
“Who will those stars be?” Johnson asked.
“Murderers. Real-life murderers mostly,” Bargatze said.
“Who would watch shows about murderers for entertainment?” Day’s character chimed in to ask.
“Your wife, my wife, everyone’s wife,” he responded to thunderous audience laughter.
Fans reacted with praise to the sketch on social media. “Good cold open that calls back Nate Bargatze’s funniest SNL sketch,” one fan wrote. “They should just do an SNL sketch to open every awards show,” said another.
The bit was a callback to his hit “Washington’s Dream” sketch in which his character, George Washington, imagined the future of America … particularly with regard to its unique choice of measurement types.
Watch part of the segment below!
Nate Bargatze jokes that streaming is “a new way for these companies to lose money” during his #Emmys opening monologue pic.twitter.com/n9zVwbxTF0
— Variety (@Variety) September 15, 2025
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