This Year, Kimmel Could Do the Same for His Recently Departed Friend — or He Could Do Something on Behalf of Himself, Oliver or Jon Stewart

Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert or John Oliver could each be crowned Hollywood's anti-White House avatar — and become even more emboldened to take on President Trump. So said an insider at a non-ABC late-night nominee when asked about the scrum in the variety series category, referring to Kimmel's habit of taking out Emmys-season billboards. Last year, Kimmel threw his weight behind the recently canceled Colbert in a bid to get The Late Show With Stephen Colbert its first-ever top late-night Emmy.

It worked. This year, Kimmel could do the same for his recently departed friend — or he could do something on behalf of himself, Oliver or Jon Stewart. They're all pals, and all have a strong claim to the variety Emmy, which this season rolls all the hot late-night shows together, putting perennial winner Oliver as well as SNL back with everyone else for one seriously supercharged group of nominees.

But variety is more than just a hot category because of the quality of the shows. It's hot because the top late-night Emmy has become a vehicle — perhaps the vehicle — for Hollywood to register its opposition to President Trump. The voters' pick will tell us a lot about whom they favor to lead that opposition for the remaining two years of his term.

The commingling of late night and overtly liberal politics has been a narrative for a decade now, ever since Colbert's ratings skyrocketed (for engaging in them) and Jimmy Fallon's tanked (for not) in the president's first term. It can be hard to remember a time when Jay Leno made Monica Lewinsky jokes (or Stewart made Obama jokes) and we all laughed no matter our party affiliation, but it happened in our lifetimes.