Comedian Nate Bargatze has a solution for keeping Emmy acceptance speeches brief — and he’s backing it with a lot of money.
Bargatze, who will host the Emmy Awards for the first time on Sunday night, is personally making a $100,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of America. And kids from the organization will be in attendance.
But there’s a caveat.
Each Emmy winner is allotted 45 seconds for an acceptance speech. For every second they talk past their time limit, Bargatze will subtract $1,000 from his donation.
“It’s a show, you gotta get moving,” Bargatze told CNN. “It is very serious. The amount of money I give to the Boys and Girls Club is totally up to all of Hollywood.”
At the same time, Bargatze has also committed to adding $1,000 to his donation for every second an acceptance speech goes under the 45-second time limit.
Award shows have earned a reputation for long acceptance speeches and going past their allotted run time — at the 2025 Oscars, best actor winner Adrien Brody set a new record for longest acceptance speech, going for five minutes and 37 seconds.
If winners stick to their 45-second window, Bargatze could successfully keep the ceremony within its three-hour time frame.
“I know people work hard for the Emmys and stuff. I was nominated. I lost,” Bargatze said, expressing an understanding for why winners give long speeches, per People.
He continued, “It’s out of my hands. I’m sorry to put it on (you), but we’ve got a TV show we’ve got to get through. You’ve got 45 seconds. That’s a ton of time. I didn’t get to thank anybody cause I lost multiple times.”
The idea came from Bargatze after producers behind the Emmys tasked the comedian with finding a way to keep the award show’s run time down.
“It’s really a brilliant idea, because obviously, it’s for a great cause,” said executive producer Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, per Variety. “We’re hoping that the winners take heed, and not just don’t go over, but also maybe even come under, because he’s going to add money to the pot.”
As host, Bargatze hopes to appeal to everyone
Bargatze said he hopes to put on a show that appeals to a broad audience.
The comedian, who has a reputation for clean comedy, wants to use humor his entire family would feel comfortable with.
“I have five generations of people that will come to my shows and I love that. I love that everybody can come with their friends and family and their parents,” he said, per Variety. “I want to that to come through with this Emmys. I need this to be a fun night. There’s enough of the other stuff going on.”
He also wants to keep mean-spirited jokes at a minimum. Any comment considered “inherently mean,” Bargatze won’t use as host, because “it would break my heart if I found out anybody was really hurt by anything,” he told CNN.