Liberal Hollywood shuffles into a dark night after elegiac Emmys

Can awards shows tell us anything about the state of a nation? Attending the 2025 Emmys last Sunday, there were times when it felt like the answer was an unequivocal: hell yes.

- Jonathan Cake

More specifically, it might tell us something about the state of liberal Hollywood - America's dream factory, the perennially enraging idée fixe of what we must now call the Maga establishment, and by extension what remains of the Democratic opposition. And if we were to give that state its own show, then that show would be Naked and Afraid.

On stage, things started warmly enough. Our MC was Nate Bargatze, a popular comedian from red-state Tennessee with a reputation for working clean and being a devout Christian. He began by announcing that he had personally donated $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). We clapped appreciatively. Ah but, he added, for every second that a winner went over their allotted 45 seconds in their thank you speeches, the Boys and Girls would lose $1,000.

Oh wow, we thought. OK.

If, however, they went under time, every second would gain them an extra $1,000.

Ah! Fun, we giggled. Fun. Right? There was JB Smoove from Curb Your Enthusiasm, alumnus of the BGCA, with two telegenic young Boys and Girls, who would, presumably, personally gain by this no doubt handsome donation.

But even then there was a creeping sense that this wasn't going to end well. Indeed, there was a creeping sense that maybe this wasn't even intended to end well. The Boy and Girl stood on stage throughout, right next to the garrulous nominees, becoming increasingly Dickensian symbols of need. Sure enough, as winner after winner celebrated the ecstatic high point of their professional lives, one by one, like lemmings falling off an oratorical cliff, they went over their allotted time.