“We’re waiting for the billboard.”
So said an insider at a (non-ABC) late night nominee to me when I asked what to make of the scrum in the variety series category — referring, of course, to Jimmy Kimmel’s habit of taking out Emmys-season billboards.
Last year, Kimmel threw his weight behind the recently canceled Stephen Colbert in a bid to get The Late Show With Stephen Colbert its first-ever top late night Emmy. (It worked.) This year, Kimmel could do the same for his recently departed (from the airwaves) friend.
Then again, he could do something on behalf of himself. Or John Oliver. Or Jon Stewart. They’re all pals. And all have a strong claim to the variety Emmy, which this season rolls all the hot late night shows together, putting perennial winner Oliver as well as SNL back with everyone else for one seriously supercharged group of nominees.
But variety is more than just a hot category because of the quality of the shows. It’s a hot category because the top late night Emmy has become a vehicle — perhaps the vehicle — for Hollywood to register its opposition to President Trump. And the voters’ pick will tell us a lot about whom they favor to lead that opposition for the remaining two years of his term. (Hopefully they survive it.)
