Here's Seth! Seth Meyers took the stage at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on Monday, Aug. 25, opening the 2014 Emmy awards.
The television personality and Saturday Night Live alum, 40, kicked off the show on a high note, riffing on everything from MTV to Beyonce to the lackluster performance of NBC to actors' drug usage.
"This year we're doing the Emmys on a Monday night in August," Meyers said, recognizing the odd timing of the show, which was held on a Monday evening for the first time in four decades. "Which, if I understand television, means the Emmys are about to be canceled."
He went on to explain that the timing was due to NBC's planning around Sunday Night Football, as well as MTV's Video Music Awards, which aired on Sunday, Aug. 24.
"MTV still has an awards show for music videos, even though they no longer show music videos," Meyers joked. "That's like network TV holding an awards show and giving all the awards to cable and Netflix."
More than ever, of course, programs from cable networks and Netflix dominated the nominations for the 66th Primetime Emmys, with early leaders including HBO's Game of Thrones and FX's Fargo.
Meyers continued the jibes, unfavorably comparing the Emmys to the glamorous Oscars and the boisterous Golden Globes. "Here, everyone sits silently in one place and just waits for the pills to kick in. Tonight, we are all crazy eyes," he said, referencing Orange Is the New Black.
He added of HBO: "Congratulations to HBO — they have 99 nominations tonight, the most of any network. Not to be outdone, NBC is also a network. HBO is like the kid you grew up with who ended up doing much better than you expected. 99 nominations. When I first met HBO, all he had was Grease 2 and Fraggle Rock."
The host also took on Game of Thrones and adding in a diss to The Big Bang Theory, saying, "Congratulations to Game of Thrones, nominated for 19 Emmys including Best Drama, Best Supporting Actor, and Worst Job Security. If you're an actor on Game of Thrones, I imagine you wait for next week's script the way most actors prepare for biopsy results… Shows like Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Fargo have the right idea. When your show starts getting critical acclaim, kill off all the main characters, otherwise, before you know it, you're paying Sheldon a million dollars an episode."
No show was immune to Meyer's jokes — even Duck Dynasty. "There are so many different ways to consume TV," he began. "People don't necessarily watch shows when they air anymore. The most DVR'd show over the past season was The Blacklist, Game of Thrones was the most pirated show, and Duck Dynasty was the most VCR-taped."
This is the first time hosting the Emmys for Meyers, who kicked off Late Night with Seth Meyers in February 2014, after Jimmy Fallon graduated to The Tonight Show.
In addition to Meyers and Fallon, other past Emmys hosts include Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Bruce Willis, and Johnny Carson, among others.
