What to Expect at the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards

Vanity Fair talks to Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the executive producers of this years Emmy awards, about what we can expect on Sunday night, and an insight in Stephen Colbert’s approaching to hosting.

Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner promise this year’s Emmys ride, which will be their first and will air live on CBS at 8 P.M. E.T. Sunday, will be well-paced and entertaining. They’ll be leaning heavily into Colbert’s quick wit and TV knowledge, a deep bench of presenters including Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman, and Alec Baldwin, and an emotional and unique In Memoriam segment.

“We didn’t just cookie-cutter the running order of the show,” Kirshner said. “We decided to do a real build. We are building it so the last hour is going be so packed, with a lot of people from the film world. Stay for the full three hours, ’cause it gets better and better as we go.”

Expect less political humor from Colbert, they say, than ‘The Late Show’ host delivers nightly on on his own program, and more jokes specific to the medium of television. “In our first meeting with Stephen Colbert, he started quoting things from different shows in depth, and Ricky and I realized, this is a real TV fan,” Weiss said. “We’ve got some scripted bits, some pre-taped bits. He has provided a bunch of material which is not at all politically based.”

And if Colbert, who is also nominated for six Emmys this year, wins a statuette himself, Weiss and Kirshner have some experience with that scenario—they produced the Tonys in 2004, the year Tony host Hugh Jackman won for The Boy from Oz. “If Stephen wins an Emmy?” Weiss said. “We give him an Emmy.”