Nate Bargatze says he never planned to donate $250,000 of his own cash to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America after the 2025 Emmys. Speaking on his Nateland podcast this week, the host confirmed that the ongoing bit was intended as a positive thing.
“It came from a real place of heart,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to put anyone on the spot. I wasn’t trying to make someone donate money. But in my head I kind of thought, ‘Make it fun.’”
Bargatze said the bit originated after CBS asked him to come up with a way to keep the acceptance speeches short. He said CBS was “very happy” with the idea, as was “everyone at home.” He acknowledged that many of the critics didn’t feel the same way. He also didn’t assume that he would be the one on the hook to donate the money.
“I wasn’t trying to overshadow any of their speeches,” Bargatze said. “I thought it was gonna be, I don’t know, Netflix donating, or Apple. The shows that won! It’s not like I expected that kid [Owen Cooper] to give money, which I covered for that kid. But I kind of thought that’s what would happen. In my head I pictured it as they could then go long, but then be a hero. So it was like a win-win. And then the night becomes about love and you’re giving to these kids that are there and all this kind of stuff. I don’t know if I just didn’t explain it enough in the room.”
He added, “I had it in my head one way. It kind of came out another way, but the reasoning was there. I wasn’t gonna give that money at the end. I wasn’t thinking I was gonna have to. But the way it went, I was like, ‘I can’t — I’m not gonna not.’ And the Boys & Girls Club were awesome. They got it… I was trying to have a very giving night.”
He also reflected on being at the Emmys alongside so many celebrities, saying he felt slightly removed from the awards. “It was crazy, I just wasn’t a part of it,” he said. “Even though I was hosting it. I just wasn’t mixed in.”
During the Emmys, Bargatze kicked off a long-running (and much-maligned) bit where money was deducted from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America if an acceptance speech went over 45 seconds. It caused some confusion during the awards show, and many felt it was unfair to the winners, distracting from their moment of triumph on stage.
Following the Emmys, Rolling Stone wrote that Bargatze “at best seemed confused about why anybody watching at home should care about any of this, and at worst radiated absolute contempt for the whole thing.” The review added that the ongoing bit set a negative tone, noting, “Bargatze, and the show, were actively rooting against people expressing joy at having won these awards, and they wanted the audience to root against them, too.”
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