A big change earlier this year could result in a trophy for all five nominees.

Why Outstanding Variety Series could have multiple Emmy winners

A big change earlier this year could result in a trophy for all five nominees.

Joyce Eng

Joyce Eng is a senior news editor at ** with nearly 20 years of experience in entertainment journalism. She previously worked at OK!, TV Guide, and Gold Derby.

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September 14, 2026 8:00 a.m. ET

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Jon Stewart; Jimmy Kimmel; John Oliver; Stephen Colbert; Kenan Thompson. Credit:

Comedy Central; Disney/Randy Holmes; HBO; Scott Kowalchyk/CBS; Rosalind O'Connor/NBC via Getty

- The Outstanding Variety Series Emmy category could have more than one winner.

- The category comes from this year’s decision to once again merge Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, with some tweaks.

- Now an area award, this category’s nominees are judged individually instead of against one another.

And the Emmy goes to… all five of you?!

Don’t be shocked if that happens at Monday’s Emmys in Outstanding Variety Series, a race that features *The Daily Show*, which has won the series prize 13 times in franchise history, 10-time winner *Last Week Tonight With John Oliver*, eight-time winner *Saturday Night Live*, one-time champ *The Late Show With Stephen Colbert*, and 12-time nominee *Jimmy Kimmel Live*.

In January, due to the dwindling number of late-night talk shows and sketch series, the Television Academy once again merged Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Scripted Variety Series into the single Outstanding Variety Series category. But the reintroduction of the category — which was split into talk and scripted in 2015 — came with some twists.

First, the number of nominees was determined proportionally based on the number of submissions from each format so that neither talk nor sketch would overwhelm the other in the single category.

Stephen Colbert accepts the Outstanding Talk Series award for ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ at the 2025 Emmys.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

The second and biggest twist concerns the winner(s). The category is now classified as an area award, which means nominees are judged individually rather than competitively against one another. In a normal category, Emmy voters would just vote for their top choice over the rest of the field and the one with the most votes obviously wins.

Under the area award system, instead of selecting one winner, Emmy voters have to answer “yes” or “no” to one question for each nominee: “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?”

Any nominee that receives at least 90 percent “yes” will receive an Emmy, which thus could produce more than one winner in the category. If no nominee reaches the 90 percent threshold, the nominee with the highest “yes” percentage will be the sole winner.

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Last year, *Last Week Tonight With John Oliver* won the scripted prize for the third year in a row — after the show was moved there from the talk category, which it won from 2016 to 2022. *The Late Show With Stephen Colbert*, meanwhile, took home the talk award, two months after CBS announced, to massive outrage, that the *Late Show* franchise would end after the 2025-2026 season.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that *The Late Show* will easily clear the 90 percent barrier and definitely be one of this year’s series winners, if not the only one. The departed series already pulled off two big wins at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, nabbing both directing for the second straight year and, more notably, writing for the first time, ending *Last Week Tonight*’s 10-year reign in the category. Voters are very much in the mindset of giving Colbert & Co. all their flowers.

John Oliver accepts the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series award for ‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ at the 2025 Emmys.

Jim Ruymen/UPI/Shutterstock

But will anyone else join *Late Show* in the winner’s circle? Will the new process make voters more discerning? Or more generous? While *Jimmy Kimmel Live* has never won any iteration of the series prize, the show’s temporary suspension last year over host Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination elicited similar backlash to that of *Late Show*’s cancellation. That could help push it over the 90 percent line. And we already know how much the Emmys love *The Daily Show* and *Last Week Tonight*.

*SNL* is the apple in a bag of oranges here as a sketch series against four politically charged late-night shows. That could theoretically put it at a disadvantage, but remember: Voters are supposed to consider each nominee on its own merits. Ideally, they shouldn’t be weighing all five against one another.

***Check out more from EW’s *****The Awardist*****, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year’s best in TV, movies, and more.***

Let’s just hope there aren’t four winners and one “loser.” That’ll be awkward.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will air Monday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

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Source: “EW Emmys”