Emmys Go Political in First Minute: Colbert’s Opener Has Trump Treason, ‘Confederate’ Jokes — and Male Handmaids

“Even treason’s better on TV,” host Stephen Colbert sings as an image of Trump and Putin flashes on screen

Stephen Colbert Emmys Opening 2017
CBS

The 2017 Emmys Awards ceremony wasted no time getting political during Sunday’s opening segment, as host Stephen Colbert and friends made political jokes within the very first minute — and Colbert quickly accused President Trump of treason.

The opening set the stage for perhaps the most political Emmys ever. One winner for “Saturday Night Live,” Kate McKinnon, thanked Hillary Clinton. Another “SNL” winner, Alex Baldwin, mocked Trump for never winning an Emmy.

Here’s a breakdown of the show’s kickoff. Before his opening song, Colbert chatted with Anthony Anderson and Allison Janney, and she complained about the current state of the world.

The “Mom” actress mentioned global warming and fighting leaders, and joked that HBO was bringing back “the Confederacy,” a reference to the flap over HBO’s planned new drama series “Confederate.”

Moments later, Colbert sang about the virtues of television, at one point delivering the line, “Even treason’s better on TV,” as an image flashed of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

The treason accusation came not even five minutes into the show.

As Colbert continued his song, a chorus line of dancers dressed as handmaids from “The Handmaids Tale” — male and female — danced behind him.

Colbert also mock-chided voters for not giving Trump an Emmy for “The Apprentice.”

“I thought you guys loved morally compromised antiheroes,” he said.

He pointed out that Emmy voters handed out repeated awards to Bryan Cranston for playing drug kingpin Walter White on “Breaking Bad” — and said Trump was “Walter Whiter.”

The opening climaxed with former White House spokesman Sean Spicer joking about the crowd size of the event — parodying his own comments about Trump’s inauguration crowd size.

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