Diving deep into this year’s full list of Emmy nominations, there are some small redemptions: RuPaul finally getting his first Emmy nomination, for example. But while you’re elbowing your way through that crowded space, full of the Faceless Men nominated for Game Of Thrones technical awards, you may begin to notice that something—or someone—is missing. Some faces so familiar, you’ve come to trust that it’s safe to get up and get a beer during the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category, because you already knew who would win.
In other words: Hey, where are The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert?
Both underwent major transitions this year, as South African comedian Trevor Noah took over for long running Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert shuttered The Colbert Report, where he played a fake “Stephen Colbert,” to be the real Stephen Colbert on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Both have been struggling ever since. And now, neither have been nominated for an Emmy, the first time since 2000 that The Daily Show has failed to make an appearance on the list. (The Colbert Report was nominated for at least one Emmy during every year of its 10-year run, and won six Emmys in total.)
And with Colbert’s replacement, The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, also noticeably absent from the list, that shuts Comedy Central, once the most trusted source of fake news that people still relied upon as their primary news source, out of the Emmys talk-show race this year. (It’s doing fine in the sketch category, though.) Between The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Comedy Central has won the Variety Talk Series category every year since 2003, and now it’s not even nominated. That’s a big change, one that allowed newcomers The Late Late Show With James Corden and Crackle’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee to enter the category.
This year, the only Daily Show alums getting nominated—John Oliver, whose Last Week Tonight was nominated for six awards, and Samantha Bee, whose Full Frontal managed to snag a writing nomination, at least—have talk shows on other networks. How’s that for a moment of Zen?