Stephen Colbert to Host 2017 Emmys
Stephen Colbert will host the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 17th, CNN reports. Before taking the helm of The Late Show, Colbert won nine Emmys for his work on The Colbert Report and The Daily Show.
“Stephen is the ultimate master of ceremonies with award-winning creative talents, and as we’ve seen the past few months, he has a fearless passion for live television,” CBS, which produces the event, said in a statement.
This will be Colbert’s first time hosting the Emmys, which has struggled with viewership in recent years. Last year’s Emmys award show slumped to its lowest viewership on record, according to Nielsen data, from 11.9 million viewers in 2015 to 11.3 million viewers in 2016.
The decision to showcase Colbert suggests CBS is hoping more people will be interested in a politically bent broadcast, which worked well for at the Golden Globes last month when highlights such as Meryl Streep‘s politicized speech went viral.
That message hasn’t been lost on Colbert, who recently said, mocking White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s lie about inauguration viewership, “This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period … Both in person and around the globe.”