This year’s Emmys tried a new tactic to keep the broadcast within the confines of three hours: guilting winners with the prospect of taking money away from the Boys and Girls Club should their speech exceed 45 seconds. The gimmick proved rather effective, with the 77th Emmy Awards finishing just three minutes later than scheduled and with $350,000 being delivered to the charity.
“I think it worked out well,” EP Jesse Collins told press just moments after the surprise series win for “The Pitt” closed out the show on Sunday night, adding that halfway through the ceremony the team was running just a minute or two behind, but that timing ebbed and flowed throughout. “I think it was a win-win for the Boys and Girls Club … They came in expecting 100 [thousand dollars] and they ended with $350,000.”
While the fear of losing money for the fund trickled its way into a handful — if not most — speeches as winners made themselves aware of the ticking clock, EP Dionne Harmon, who executive produces for Jesse Collins Entertainment alongside Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, wasn’t concerned about the deal taking away from the heart within the speeches.
“I felt like most people spoke from the heart, and the people that had longer speeches still had longer speeches, and the people that had shorter ones kind of made moments of it, or maybe it was because they won multiple times,” Harmon said. “I didn’t get the sense that somebody held something in.”
The initiative was led by host Nate Bargatze, who, despite having two shows this weekend, rehearsed with the producers for longer than they expected. As Rouzan-Clay noted, “He came in early before the shows … he was here all day, longer than we thought he was actually going to be, and then he flew out and did his shows and came back.”
Bargatze kicked off the show with an opening sketch rather than an opening monologue, paying tribute to “SNL’s” 50th anniversary with a nod to the NBC sketch show’s “Washington’s Dream” segment. Only this time, it was focused on TV, with the comic playing Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the television. The sketch, which was written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, came together three to four weeks ahead of the show, according to the EPs, and, of course, had the blessing of “SNL” legend Lorne Michaels (the executive producers even revealed they “went rogue” and did not ask for Michaels’ approval for the cardboard cutout of himself used during Jeff Probst’s “Survivor” moment, promising they would apologize after the fact, but they did see Michaels crack a laugh).
“Once we locked in on the sketch that became the monologue … and then [Bargatze] was in character, he wasn’t Nate at that point,” Collins said of subbing out the opening monologue for a cold open.
Beyond “SNL” and “Survivor,” the 77th Emmys paid tribute to “Golden Girls” with a set recreation and a theme song from Reba McEntire, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, which the EPs noted they quickly zeroed in on after realizing the Emmys were airing 40 years to the day of the premiere. Likewise, the last reunion that came together was “Law & Order,” while the producers noted that the “Gilmore Girls” reunion between Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel was one that made audiences especially excited.
One reunion, however, didn’t happen as planned when Eric Dane wasn’t able to make it to the show, prompting plans for a “Grey’s Anatomy” bit with Jesse Williams to be scrapped as the latter presented solo. While the EPs noted there wasn’t a set recreation planned for that one, they didn’t have any specific details as to why Dane couldn’t attend — though he has been battling ALS.
Another notable absence came from Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who were both competing in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category and had seats reserved for them at the show. “We figured it out when they weren’t in the seat,” Collins joked.
The EPs also created an opportunity for the Emmys audience to pay tribute to Stephen Colbert in the wake of his show’s cancellation by having him announce Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series closer to the top of the show, which resulted in a standing ovation for the late night host. While Colbert also received his flowers when he won Outstanding Talk Series later in the night, the EPs explained that having him present early on ensured there would be a moment for the audience to share their gratitude for him.
“We all felt like it was a moment for him to walk out on that stage and be the first award, and we were just glad that he was willing to do it,” Collins said.
The EPs also wanted to give Colbert a category to present “with some weight to it,” so they moved up the Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category, which was presented up top alongside some other main acting categories, while Best Actor in a Drama Series was slotted as the penultimate category. “You want to keep your audience intrigued and engaged, too, from the beginning and then throughout, so you don’t want to front-load it or have everything at the back,” Rouzan-Clay said.
While Colbert gave a rousing speech that nodded to his show’s cancellation due to the powers that be, “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder had a more direct political aim in her speech, when she declared “F–k ICE and free Palestine.” When asked if any of the political messaging caught the team off guard, the EPs replied, “You can’t prepare for a canned speech … people are going to say what they’re going to say and that’s what makes live television.”
The Jesse Collins Entertainment team won’t find out if they’ll be back to produce the 78th Emmys until the spring, when the TV Academy takes pitch meetings. However, the team will be producing the Super Bowl halftime show in February, but they stayed tight-lipped about any details — including if Taylor Swift could be headlining the show.
