Stephen Colbert's off-the-air show is up for nine Emmys, while Kimmel's late-night show has six. Could one Emmy category produce a whopping five winners this year? Somehow, yes!
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” are up for the newly-created Best Variety Series category, and due to a rule overhaul, they could all take home trophies.
Back in January, the Television Academy announced that Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Talk Series would be consolidated into one category due to a “reduced number of submissions.”
Best Variety Series is an “area award,” which means nominees don’t compete against each other, but individually.
Emmy voters will be asked one yes-or-no question for each of the five titles: “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?”
Any nominee that earns 90% “yes” votes will win an Emmy. In the event that no nominee reaches the threshold, the entry with the highest “yes” percentage will win.
“It’s so stupid. It feels like a participation trophy,” one awards insider says of the decision. “Because you’re not just picking one, you are actively voting against something by saying, ‘No, they don’t deserve this.’”
Of course, just because five series can win doesn’t mean that they will — 90% is a high bar to clear.
The shoo-in of the bunch would appear to be “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” which has previously taken home the top prize for the last 10 years (as a talk series from 2016 to 2022, and as a scripted variety series from 2023 to 2025).
It seems unlikely voters would turn on their perennial darling of over a decade.
The other most likely winner among the nominees is surely Colbert’s “Late Show.”
After its cancellation at CBS, the town rallied around the host. Kimmel even bought up a billboard reading “I’m voting for Stephen” last year, (they were both up for outstanding talk series, and Colbert eventually won). Since “The Late Show” ran its final episode this May, this is voters’ last chance to show their support for the longtime host.
But Kimmel could similarly court favor following his own tussles with ABC and the FCC in the past year, most notably when he was pulled off the air for his comments on Charlie Kirk’s death. That certainly seems to be what the team is counting on, considering its submitted episode is from Sept. 23, 2025 – Kimmel’s first day back on air after the controversy.
“The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live” may have less momentum heading into the awards, but they’re not long shots by any means. Their ability to win will come down to a simple question: How choosy will voters be? Will they spread the wealth, or try to keep a limited number of winners to preserve the integrity of the Emmys?
The potential for multiple winners also raises a logistical challenge: How might multiple awards be presented during the telecast? For the Emmys, it seems Variety really could be the spice of life.
