After eight years and hundreds of “Closer Looks” at the deranged state of American politics, Late Night with Seth Meyers has finally been recognized by the Television Academy.
When the nominations for Outstanding Variety Talk Series were announced Tuesday morning, Seth Meyers’ late-night show was included along with perennial nominees Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah and John Oliver, whose HBO series Last Week Tonight has taken home the award for six consecutive years.
It was a big moment for the NBC franchise, which has been nominated for its writing the past several years, but until now had never managed to break through into the main category that will be awarded during the broadcast on that same network in September.
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Left off the list this time around was Full Frontal host Samantha Bee, who repeatedly found herself to be the only female late-night host with a nomination during President Trump’s four years in office.
Late Night’s nomination comes after an unusual push from late-night showrunners who protested a decision that would have cut the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category from five nominees down to four. Traditionally, a category must receive at least 20 submissions to garner five slots, but this year there were only 19. The campaign from executive producers prompted the Academy to alter its rules so that the number of submissions is divided by four and then rounded up.
It was almost certainly this rule change that opened the door for Meyers’ show, which Emmy voters clearly prize for its writing but has been historically underappreciated as a whole.
While some late-night shows—like Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show and James Corden’s Late Late Show, neither of which made the cut—have pivoted even further away from politics in the post-Trump era, Meyers has used his “A Closer Look” segment to stay laser-focused on the continued fallout from Trump’s presidency. Over the past year, that has included deep dives into the rise of Ron DeSantis, Tucker Carlson’s dangerous rhetoric, and the Jan. 6 Committee bombshells.
In many ways, Meyers’ long “A Closer Look” segments are the closest thing in late-night to the in-depth examinations of large social and political issues that have helped John Oliver win Emmy after Emmy for Last Week Tonight. But unlike Oliver, who only puts out one half hour per week, Meyers is delivering four solid hours of content, including occasionally from home with COVID.
So while no host has managed to beat Oliver since Jon Stewart won the Emmy for his final season of The Daily Show in 2015, if anyone can do it, it just might be Meyers.
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