Both John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel were thrilled to see Stephen Colbert and his team win the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series on Sunday night. But speaking honestly a day later, Oliver admitted that at least part of him wanted to see Kimmel win it.
Following the abrupt cancellation of “The Late Show” earlier this year, Colbert has seen an outpouring of support from both celebrities and his fellow late night hosts. When he took the stage on Sunday night, the CBS host was greeted by thunderous applause and a standing ovation. It seemed only right that Colbert won the Emmy, particularly after the network said the show was canceled purely for economic reasons.
Oliver noted as much during his appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Monday. That said, he still would’ve enjoyed the humor of a different outcome.
“I will say this, it was the — I know we wanted him to win,” Oliver said. “The right thing to happen was for him to win. The funniest thing to happen would have been if you had won.”
“Most of me wanted him to win. A part of me, the part of me that I like more, just wanted to see your face go, ‘Oh no! Not like this!’”
Kimmel immediately conceded that that is exactly what would’ve happened if he had won, because at one point, the team thought that’s what had actually happened.
“One of the drivers for one of our writers was not watching the show and went on ChatGPT or something, said, ‘Who won the talk show Emmy?’ and for whatever reason, it said that we won,” Kimmel explained.
“And they texted it to us. I’m like, ‘Well, this is not right, obviously,’” he continued. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, no, did they know something?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, if we win, this is a disaster!’”
You can watch Oliver’s full appearance on “JKL” in the video above.
