Nate Bargatze poked fun of the TV industry and some nominees during the opening moments of the 2025 Emmy Awards on CBS.
The first-time Emmy host opened with a sketch with Bargatze portraying television inventor Philo Farnsworth explaining the all-too-real and baffling ways the medium would be used in the future.
Flanked by SNL cast members Bowen Yang, Mikey Day and James Austin Johnson, the sketch was a variation on Bargatze’s beloved “Washington’s Dream” sketch from his debut hosting Saturday Night Live last year.
As Farnsworth, Bargatze told the celebrity-filled Peacock Theater audience in Los Angeles that streaming services would be “a new way for a company to lose money.”
He said there would be a network with content for Black audiences called BET — and one for white people called CBS.
He also explained how shows about murderers would be popular and be watched by “your wife, my wife, everyone’s wife.”
When one of Farnsworth’s assistants noted by paying for streaming, you could avoid watching ads, he’s corrected: “If it only it were so simple. You pay the fee and there are ads.”
Bargatze said the Emmy Awards celebrating television would have “awards for all types of shows — gripping dramas like The Pitt, a heartbreaking look at the emotional toll of trauma. And laugh-out-loud comedies like The Bear, a heartbreaking look at the emotional toll of trauma.”
When asked if shows that win an Emmy will “will have the most viewers,” he said, “not even close,” and that “most people will watch football and Yellowstone.”
Moving on, Bargatze said, “We will create a world where a woman will host her own popular late-night talk show — not in real life, but on a fictional show called Hacks. We will create a world where an actor named Stanley Tucci will not get will get not one, but two shows where he goes to Italy and eats food. We create a world where the finest artists craft stories of staggering beauty that millions of people will watch on their phones while they’re sitting on the toilet.”
The move follows Bargatze previously saying he would try to avoid controversy while on stage, but also couldn’t have predicted the national mode and media focus would be so deeply impacted by a singular recent tragedy going into the show following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“I want it to be a night that’s fun,” the Tennessee native told Fox News about hosting the show. “The comics that [make controversial jokes], they’re great at it, and I can’t do what they do. And, so, I just want this night to be — I hope that it’s just, I don’t know, as relaxing as it can be … I don’t get political because it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter what religion you are. It doesn’t matter what your politics are. I don’t think I need to guide you in any direction. I can tell you who I am.”