It's no secret that Hollywood awards do more than honor the best and brightest. These galas, be it the Emmys, the Oscars or the Grammys, exist to promote and support progressive causes.
Was "An Inconvenient Truth" really the Best Documentary of 2006? Did President Barack Obama truly earn two Grammys and three Emmys for his voice-over work?
Really?
Let's not start on "One Battle After Another," a film promoting anti-government violence that earned Best Picture honors just a few months ago.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter is saying the quiet part out loud. In print and on its far-Left web site.
"How the Late-Night Emmy Became the Anti-Trump Award," reads the headline. The story shares how late-night TV has become a monolithic movement dedicated to one goal above all.
Get Trump.
THR isn't ready to beat around the late-night bush. Consider this alarming paragraph.
It’s a hot category because the top late night Emmy has become a vehicle — perhaps the vehicle — for Hollywood to register its opposition to President Trump. And the voters’ pick will tell us a lot about whom they favor to lead that opposition for the remaining two years of his term. (Hopefully they survive it.)
The last four words are so blazingly unprofessional it's tempting to focus on that. Let's not, for argument's sake.
That sentiment explains why the media melted down when CBS decided it's tired of losing $40 million a year for the privilege of putting Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" on the air. The same scribes shrieked when ABC suspended far-Left talker Jimmy Kimmel for a week after he misled his audience about the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel has yet to apologize for that remark. Instead, he's painted himself as a free speech martyr.
Now, "Real Time with Bill Maher" is no longer in consideration for any serious Emmy talk. Why? Maher isn't pushing an extreme, consistent agenda like Kimmel and co. Maher, who just picked up a Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, is willing to mock both sides of the aisle.
And, when a political candidate says she wants to cancel Thanksgiving only to do a 180 mere days later, he knows that's ripe for ridicule.
Bill Maher ERUPTS on Francesca Hong’s claim that she never wanted to cancel Thanksgiving.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 8, 2026
“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU! ... You meant it... she hates all holidays.”
Then he dropped the receipts:
“Democrats have found a candidate who hates Thanksgiving and wants to get rid of it. Yes.… pic.twitter.com/4z4CQ0mpHS
It is, but Kimmel and co. won't even acknowledge that simple truth.
Maher has said his more neutral brand of satire has him out of the Emmy hunt. He's fine with that, but he's also ready to call it out.
Obviously, it’s something I said... Well, it’s everything I said ... it's because I speak freely. And this woke town f***ing hates that. And that’s okay. I’ve made my peace with that.
THR confirms his sentiment.
Real Time With Bill Maher, whose host is by far the Trump-friendliest of the bunch, was often nominated for the top late night Emmy in a pre-Trump era — every year but one from 2005 to 2017. He’s not been nominated since.
Oh.
So, it's not about excellence, comedy or even truthiness, to paraphrase an old Colbert line. It's about politics. Period.
Glad we can speak that in the open now. But the next time an awards show's ratings tank, or the public turns up its collective nose at the results, just know the problem was self-inflicted.
