“The 77th annual Emmy Awards were brilliantly hosted by Stephen Colbert.”

In a just world that made sense, the previous sentence would have been true. For a moment, when the host of “The Late Show” took the stage on Sunday, there was reason to hope it could be.

Colbert strode out directly after Nate Bargatze performed an Emmys-themed redux of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch featuring Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson, with Bargatze playing TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth. It was . . . fine. But it didn’t inspire the thunderous standing ovation that greeted Colbert when he took the stage and joked, “While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?”

Colbert, whose “The Late Show” is coming to an end in 2026, immediately had the audience eating out of his hand, producing a headsh

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