First off, it's an honor just to be nominated, right?
I'm sure that Stephen Colbert must be tired of hearing this, given his buddy Jon Stewart's unprecedented streak. Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" won its tenth consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series on Sunday night, the longest streak in Emmy history, and its eighth Emmy for Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series. This brings the grand total of Primetime Emmys for "The Daily Show" to 18.
So Stephen might be forgiven for photobombing Jon at the Governor's Ball. What I can't believe is that he did it in this photo you see above taken with me. That's so much icing I can barely contemplate the cake underneath!
The photo was taken by my daughter, Lauren Zabel, about an hour or so after Jon Stewart won that tenth straight Emmy at the Governor's Ball. As a former chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, I was actually on-the-job the first year Jon and "The Daily Show" won and, with only a few exceptions, I've seen him at the ball every year and congratulated him. Jon Stewart's a modest guy, as you can tell from his wonderful acceptance speeches and I'm sure he'd probably have been very happy for Stephen Colbert to walk away with one of those Emmys one of those years.
Maybe next year. In the meantime, "The Daily Show" simply remains the gold standard of day-in and day-out excellence in television comedy. And I say this being a supreme fan of the talent, work and vision of Stephen Colbert and his wonderful show.
Congratulations to Jon Stewart and all the excellent comedy reporters and writers on "The Daily Show." This is no time to be modest. You f***ing deserve this distinction. (Jon dropped the f-bomb in his acceptance speech Sunday night. F-bombs, photo-bombs, it's a free-fire zone out there in Hollywood.)
