“The filmed musical opening was fun, if a bit of a cliche by now, and the initial phase of his monologue was fine, but then we got an extended Donald Trump harangue,” says Alan Sepinwall. “This was perhaps unavoidable given Colbert’s persona, the contentious mood of the country, and the particular mood of the night, when even some winners like (Donald) Glover and SNLer Alec Baldwin suggested their wins were a result of Emmy voters’ displeasure with the current administration. But when you take so many shots at POTUS and then bring out Sean Spicer — who for the better part of the year was the public face of the administration and Trump’s chief defender — as a comedy prop and act delighted to have him there (Spicer spent much of the night posing for photos with Academy members in the lobby), well, maybe you lose some of the moral high ground behind the screeds?” Another problem, Sepinwall notes, is the cutting off of This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown's speech. He notes that "Kidman ... is a big movie star, so she gets to talk as much as she wants, whereas Brown is a mere TV star, even at a TV awards ceremony, so nobody really cares what he has to say."
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TOPICS: CBS, 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, This Is Us, Alec Baldwin, Donald Glover, Jermaine Fowler, Jimmy Kimmel, Sean Spicer, Stephen Colbert, Sterling K. Brown, Award Shows, Emmys, Late Night, Trump Presidency