John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ Beats ‘SNL’ To Win First Scripted Variety Series Emmy; Thanks HBO Lawyers “Who Are Angry With Us All Of The Time”

Peter White
·2 min read
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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver beat Saturday Night Live and A Black Lady Sketch Show to win the first ever Emmy for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series.

John Oliver’s HBO show continued its Emmy win streak, winning its eighth straight Emmy, having won seven years in a row in the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category.

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The TV Academy shook up the categories last year, launching Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, alongside Outstanding Talk Series and moved Oliver into the former, going head to head with SNL, which had won the award for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series six years in a row starting in 2017.

Oliver, who was handed the award by Stephen Colbert, his Strike Force 5 co-host, and After Midnight host Taylor Tomlinson, started by thanking his staff, although pointed out that some of them were still in New York “burning down a bar there”.

“Thank you to HBO, Casey, Nina and our lawyers who are angry with us all of the time,” he said.

Oliver also joked that he promised his kids that he would bring them home Pokemon cards, so asked the room to help him procure some between the awards and LAX.

He wanted to get booed off by Anthony Anderson’s mother Doris Hancox so started listing Liverpool FC’s starting 11. (Watch the video above.)

The win kills SNL’s own win streak; the long-running NBC show had won six years in a row for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series, starting in 2017.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver also won Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series.

Writers winning included Daniel O’Brien, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Seena Vali, Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Ryan Ken, Mark Kramer, Sofia Manfredi, Taylor Kay Phillips, Chrissy Shackelford and Oliver.

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