It’s safe to say Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, who have both previously hosted the Emmy Awards, weren’t fans of the no-host situation this year.
To present the Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, the duo took the stage to poke some fun at the decision to run the show without a moderator.
“How’s this no-host thing going?” Colbert asked the audience. “What a joke!”
“You know what has a host?” Kimmel chimed in. “Applebee’s has a host!”
Colbert called he and Kimmel the real victims of the no-host situation: “Hosting is the only thing we know how to do!”
“I’m sorry, but this show sucks!” Kimmel added.
Then, the two pointed out that the Titanic didn’t have a host, and “look what happened to them.”
“They won an Oscar…” Colbert said, speaking of the 1997 James Cameron megahit. Kimmel responded, “But what gave it to them? A host!”
And finally, Colbert said: “If we let this slide, they’ll start using Alexa to present the nominees.”
Of course, cue Amazon’s Alexa, who then read off the nominees for the category, before Phoebe Waller-Bridge won for her role in “Fleabag.”
Kimmel hosted the awards show in 2012 and 2016, while Colbert hosted the show in 2017.
Emmy producers decided to go hostless after a no-host Academy Awards show garnered positive reviews and saw an uptick in ratings. The move was confirmed in August by Fox Entertainment chief Charlie Collier, who said the main reason for that decision was that it would give the telecast more time to honor the shows.