Topline
Stephen Colbert received a standing ovation from the crowd at Sunday’s 2025 Emmy Awards ceremony as his ‘Late Show’—whose surprise cancellation was announced by CBS earlier this year—won the “outstanding talk series” prize, in a ceremony that saw very minimal political commentary and references.
Colbert received his first standing ovation as he appeared on stage to present the award for the “Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series” and poked fun at his show’s cancellation, saying: “While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?”
The late-night host then shared his old headshot with actor Harrison Ford, and asked him, “Can you pass this on to Spielberg?”
Colbert and the entire team of the ‘Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ received a standing ovation from the audience again after the show won its first “Outstanding Talk Series” Emmy—also the first time a network show has won the category, first established in 2015.
In his acceptance speech, the comedian thanked CBS for “giving us the privilege to be part of the late-night tradition, which I hope continues long after we’re no longer doing this show” and the “200 incredible professionals” who work on the show.
Colbert said in 2015 he set out to do a late-night comedy show about “love,” but at a “certain point, and you can guess when that point was, I realized that we were doing a late-night comedy show about loss.”
The late night host closed his speech saying that ten years later, “I have never loved my country more desperately,” adding: “God bless America. Stay strong, be brave.”
The show was light on politics, although not completely devoid of it. Hannah Einbinder, who won an Emmy for the “Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series” for her work on the show “Hacks,” closed out her acceptance speech by saying: “Fuck ICE and free Palestine!” While presenting the talk show prize, Bryan Cranston joked about “destructive woke degenerates like Tom Hanks,” appearing to mock President Donald Trump’s recent attack on the Oscar-winning actor. A few other political displays and messages were shared during the red carpet ceremony. Einbinder’s “Hacks” co-star, Megan Stalter, appeared on the red carpet with a handbag that had a sticker that read “Cease Fire!” and was wearing an “Artists4Ceasefire” pin, calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Actor Javier Bardem also wore the “Artists4Ceasefire” pin and told USA Today: “How many hundreds of thousands of dead children need to suffer for people to wake up?” Both the ceremony and red carpet, however, avoided any references to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
