Stephen Colbert got an all-star send-off from The Late Show on Thursday. Next stop, the Emmys.
Colbert is poised to collect his second consecutive statuette for the now-defunct show, but it just won’t be for Best Talk Series.
Thanks to revamped rules unveiled in January, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will be competing in the newly created Best Variety Series. The category merges Best Scripted Variety Series and Best Talk Series after a shrinking TV landscape had seen declines in submissions in the two fields.
This buckets late-night talk shows, topical comedy series, and scripted variety staples in direct competition, meaning Colbert and some of his Task Force Five late-night cohorts could find themselves alongside all-time Emmy champ Saturday Night Live on the Best Variety Series catch-all.
While the categories are merged, nominations will still be tracked by format, with the number of nominees proportionally based on how many submissions are received from each format — scripted variety versus talk series. For example, had the rule been in place last year, the nominee slate would have included two scripted variety series (Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and Saturday Night Live) and three talk series (The Late Show, The Daily Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!), reflecting submission totals at the time.
But the combined competition isn’t the only wrinkle. Under the new guidelines, the award will also be classified as an area award, meaning the category could now produce multiple Emmy winners in the same year — an outcome that significantly alters how the race will be judged.
Under this system, nominees are judged individually rather than competitively. Instead of selecting a single winner, Emmy voters must answer one question for each nominee: “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?”
Any series that receives at least 90 percent “Yes” votes will earn an Emmy — creating the possibility of multiple winners in the same category. If no nominee reaches that threshold, the show with the highest approval percentage will receive the award instead.
We expect to see multiple winners using that rubric, including last year’s two champs in the previous categories: The Late Show (which was named Best Talk Series) and Last Week Tonight (Best Variety Series).
Under Colbert’s stewardship, The Late Show had racked up 31 nominations without a win going into the 2025 Emmys, and was trailing The Daily Show in the Gold Derby prediction data. Then CBS canceled the late-night program citing a “financial decision,” shifting industry support — and the Emmy odds — towards The Late Show. In addition to Best Talk Series, The Late Show also won for direction.
Based on the outpouring of affection and increased profile for Colbert and his TV crew — the finale was the show’s most-watched ever, with 6.74 million viewers — he has to be considered a favorite to repeat, especially with the favorable new rules.
