Everything Emmys is better with Colbert
He showed his chops as awards show host
Everything ’s better with Stephen Colbert on TV.
The Late Show host put together an impressive array of performance skills — including singing, dancing and acting — while, not surprisingly, taking some shots at President Trump in his first hosting stint at the Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday. But he was hitand-miss later on in the threehour awards telecast.
Colbert opened with a hummable opening song-and-dance number, Everything Is Better on TV, that mixed references to climate change, Russia and health care with TV-oriented jokes about This Is Us, Stranger Things and Veep, with a singing cameo by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Trump was a recurring theme, from the opening monologue, starting with a surprise appearance by former presidential press secretary Sean Spicer to pronounce that Colbert’s Emmy ratings the biggest in the world.
But the jokes, and there were many, were less hard-edged than some barbs aimed at the commander in chief on Colbert’s CBS late-night show, perhaps a recognition that the Emmys attract a larger audience with a broad range of opinions about the president. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin were more scathing in comparing Trump to their 9 to 5 boss, as Tomlin said they “refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”
Colbert, whose Late Show star has risen with the president’s political ascendancy, suggested Trump might not have run if voters had given him an Emmy for The Apprentice: “I thought you loved morally compromised antiheroes. You like Walter White. He’s just Walter Much Whiter.”
He also took a shot at Trump being elected despite getting fewer votes than Hillary Clinton: “Unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote.”
Colbert performed best with his early moments, the opening number and monologue, but as often happens in awards shows, his later appearances were uneven. A well-executed Westworld parody with star Jeffrey Wright showed off Colbert’s acting chops, along with his backside. A sitdown in which Colbert asked the Emmy statuette (played by RuPaul), about her relationship with other awards was far less funny.
With few unplanned moments, the quick-thinking Colbert had few opportunities to show off his supreme improvisational skills. One, in which he and fellow variety-talk series nominee Jimmy Kimmel mock-bitterly commented on John Oliver’s win, worked.
Colbert’s scripted comments during brief appearances later in the show were a bit stale, with even a line playing off the actresses-as-enemies stereotype, when he said the female Big Little Lies presenters must be friends because they didn’t push each other down the stairs.
But those are minor misgivings. Overall, Colbert gave an impressive performance that suggests he may have a future in singing, dancing and acting — if the latenight thing doesn’t work out.