Stand up comic Nate Bergatze — nice guy, I’ve met him — is hosting the Emmy Awards this fall.
Cutting edge comic? Not so much. Man of the people, that’s his calling card.
Bergatze — who’s hosted “SNL” twice recently to meh ratings — is hosting the Emmy Awards this fall. He tells Esquire magazine in a cover story that he doesn’t watch TV shows that are “art.” For example, he never watched the very popular, raved about Emmy winning HBO drama, “Succession.”
“I did not watch Succession,” he says. “I know it’s the greatest show ever to exist. I’m not a moron. Everybody understands it’s the greatest show in the world. I want to watch it. This has nothing to do with the show. But no one watched it in the grand scheme of things.”
“You know what?” he continues. “Maybe the Successions are a little bit easier to make because you’re making it for such a specific audience. You get the runway to make it for five, six years because it’s cool. What if no one watches? It doesn’t matter.”
We can draw the conclusion that he’s never seen “The Sopranos” or “Veep” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and definitely not “The Crown.”
The shows and movies that everyone watches, Esquire asks? King of Queens, plus Everybody Loves Raymond, Home Alone, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. “Those are the ones you go back to,” he says. “Those are the ones that are hard to make.”
Lucky for Bergatze, “Succession” has wrapped up its run. But network shows do not get Emmy Awards. “Abbott Elementary” is the lone entry from the big four networks. It doesn’t win (it’s fun but it’s “The Office” set in a grade school).
The only shot for an actor in any of the main categories this year is Kathy Bates in “Matlock.” She’s a shoo-in.
Everything else will be from Hulu, Netflix, HBO, FX, Apple, and Amazon. Bergatze has all summer to bone up on the shows he obviously doesn’t watch.
“Why did they pick me to do it?” he says rhetorically to writer Michael Sebastian. “Well, the election probably helped.” It got Hollywood executives asking: “Who doesn’t live in L.A.? Who’s available?”
PS I always loved Esquire. Glad to see they’re still making waves.
