As Emmy voting comes to an end, Stephen Colbert has endorsed his friend and fellow nominee Jimmy Kimmel to win 2026’s Outstanding Variety Series.
“Oh hi, Stephen Colbert here at the end of the world. You know there’s 24 hours left in Emmy voting, and if you’re anything like me, you haven’t even started yet. So let’s get going,” Colbert shared in a Tuesday Instagram video. “First up, we have Outstanding Variety Series. Kind of a weird voting system this year, but you know I think we can all agree that Jimmy Kimmel deserves an Emmy.”
“I don’t care if you’ve never even seen his show, you know he deserves an Emmy. Besides, look how cute he is,” he continued. “Anyway, please consider thinking that Jimmy deserves an Emmy. I do. I love you.”
His last-minute endorsement comes three months after “The Late Show” came to an end on CBS. The network insisted its cancelation was a purely financial decision, but both Colbert and Kimmel have notably found themselves in public feuds with President Trump and his administration over free speech.
“Folks, we have done over 1,800 of these shows and most nights I come out here I talk to the audience beforehand, and tonight I thought I’d talk to the audience in here and out there at home,” Colbert said in his final monologue on May 21. “This show has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show the joy machine because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine. But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.”
The comedians’ late night shows are up against “The Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live” after the variety-talk and scripted-variety acts were consolidated into a single category. It’s also worth noting Colbert and his team won Outstanding Talk Series in 2025, over Kimmel.
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards air Sept. 14 on NBC and Peacock.
