No Emmy award in history has been as dominated as the award
for Outstanding Variety Series has in the past 14 years. Jon Stewart and his
family tree of political satirists have won the last 14 Emmys in this category
as well as 13 of the last 14 for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (Emmys).
Their brand of political satire showed such a firm grip on the category that in
2015 the Academy split it into two awards to give other shows a chance, according
to the LA Times.
The Stewart Streak
After being
nominated in 2001 and 2002, The Daily Show won its first Outstanding Variety
Series Emmy in 2003 (it won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 2001).
For the next decade, eleven other shows received nominations, but The Daily
Show never lost. The streak is the longest winning streak for a television show
in Emmy Award history
(Emmys).
The Colbert Report
Of the
eleven shows that challenged The Daily Show from 2003-2012 only two were
political (Real Time with Bill Maher and The Colbert Report). Late night
entertainment shows like those of Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien
took a healthy share of the nominations (52 percent during Stewart’s run).
When Stewart finally relinquished
his hold on the Award, it was to his former Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert. Despite a playful on-screen
rivalry over the award, Stewart was an executive producer of The Colbert Report
and the award stayed in the Comedy Central family. Colbert would win
back-to-back Emmys before conceding to Stewart in 2015, the final year of both
of their shows.
Talk vs. Sketch
Starting in
2015, after more than a decade of political satire ion, the Academy decided to
split it in two. According to the LA Times, “the variety series was split in
two so ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ didn’t have to compete with ‘Drunk
History.’” With two new categories
·
“Outstanding Variety Talk Series”
·
“Outstanding Variety Sketch Series”
shows like “Inside Amy Schumer” (2015 sketch winner) and
“Key and Peele” (2016) could compete with more similar peers for recognition.
Post-Stewart/Colbert
With the two shows that owned the
Emmy gone, the others were looking at their best chance this century of taking home
a trophy. But, it should come as no surprise that the award stayed in the
Stewart family of satire. The award went to “Last Week Tonight with John
Oliver” on HBO. Oliver, like Colbert, is a former Daily Show correspondent.
Oliver also hosted the Daily Show for eight weeks during the summer of 2013
while Jon Stewart directed his film “Rosewater.”
While the
Comedy Central run may be over, and it looks that way with Trevor Noah being
snubbed and Larry Wilmore getting canceled, there’s no doubt that political
satire is the variety show of choice for the academy.
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