Sunday evening, the recently cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert secured the award for Outstanding Talk Series.
Colbert and members of his team were greeted with a standing ovation as they ascended the stage to accept their prize.
“In September 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately,” Colbert conveyed to those in attendance.
In July 2025, CBS had declared the show’s discontinuation to be “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” Nevertheless, some have hypothesized it might have been a decision.
Rather than adopting a cautious approach, The Late Show had grown more , particularly in its segments focusing on President Trump—“essentially daring his bosses to kill the show sooner,” as Judy Berman, TIME’s TV critic, observed earlier this year.
A prime example: Earlier in the ceremony, Colbert comically handed his “résumé” to Harrison Ford, requesting he pass it to Steven Spielberg, during Ford’s presentation of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.