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"I'll pay the difference," Hacks star Hannah Einbinder said as the tally plummeted during her first time Emmys win.
Nate Bargatze was determined to keep the 2025 Emmy Awards on schedule, and that meant no one was going to pull an Adrien Brody when they won. Brody, of course, has the longest Oscars speech in history.
Nate pledged he would personally donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Club on one very strict condition: each winner must stay within their allocated 45 seconds for their "thank you speech."
"If someone goes over, we take away $1,000 a second. I know it’s tough. If you go under, we will put $1,000 back on so you can give it back," the first time Emmy's host said on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week. He warned the nominees again before the night kicked off -- just after Seth Rogen won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Lucky for him though, The Studio star stayed under the 45 seconds, kicking off the evening by adding $6,000 to the tally, which was shown on a screen to the audience at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, California.
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View StoryNate tossed things over to JB Smoove, who stood up in the audience and introduced two kids, Paul and Kelsey, who are a part of the Boys & Girls Club, just to really make those who go over 45 seconds feel bad.
The total didn't stay above $100,000 for too long, though.
The Pitt's Katherine LaNasa took her time accepting her Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series win, bringing things down to $98,000.
"That was an expensive wave," Bargatze cracked after her speech. "A lot of people at home were asking, are we penalizing the presenters if they go long or something? I just want to get it straight, we are not. Only the people that have worked the hardest to get here."
Hacks star Hannah Einbinder then brought it down by thousands more with her win, ending her speech with the tally at $80,000.
"I'll pay the difference," Hannah promised towards the end of the speech -- before adding, "sorry, go Birds, f--k ICE, and free Palestine."
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View Story"I will find her later, she also cursed and let me tell ya, I'll start a swear jar real fast," Nate joked about her speech.
A few more wins brought the tally down even more to $74,000. "It's going good for me," Nate said following a commercial.
Rogen kept it brief, yet again, later in the show for his and Evan Goldberg's victory speech when they picked up the Comedy Directing trophy, celebrating this secondary victory.
"WE'RE UNDER! THANK YOU," Rogen exclaimed as they wrapped up, raising his arms in victory.
Meanwhile, John Oliver was the first to speed through his own thank you speech, sound like he was speaking at 2x speed before he rushed off the stage.
At this point in the show, though, there was still 1 hour and 45 minutes left of the ceremony and the donation was already down to $73,000.
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View StoryThen 15-year-old Owen Cooper took home the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance in Adolescence, making him the youngest male acting Emmy winner in HISTORY.
Surely, he would get a free pass! Right?
Two big wins in a row for Adolescence -- with Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham taking home wins for Writing in a Limited or Anthology Series -- only further damaged the tally.
"That was a show called Adolescence, that did that to adolescents," Nate joked as the number shown across the screen read a paltry $36,000.
However, Nate quickly decided to do the right thing by the teen winner, which helped boost the number. "I want to cover Owen," he announced as the number jumped back up to $60,000.
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View StoryThe kids at the Boys & Girls Club who were watching could thank The Studio yet again for the team's super-short speech for Comedy Writing adding thousands again back to the total, bringing it almost all the way back up to it's starting point, landing at $99,000.
"Seth Rogen, like John Oliver, is the worst and added money to it," Nate said.
Eighty-year-old Lorne Michaels took his time on stage as he celebrated Saturday Night Live's win for Outstanding Live Variety special for its SNL50 anniversary special. "I honestly wouldn't be here hosting if it wasn't for you," Nate said. "What else can I say about you ... You cost The Boys & Girls Club a lot of money."
As the night continued, other long speeches caused Nate's original donation count to almost halve from $100,000 to $52,000.
"The in memoriam ran a little long," the host said after that segment, suggesting it might cause further deficits, before clarifying multiple times that he was joking.
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View StoryFinally, With just 10 minutes left of the show, Nate joked that he'd actually "made money," as the donation total was sitting at -$26,000.
Despite dropping well below -$40,000 by the end of the night, the host wrapped the three-hour long show by declaring that CBS was going to donate the original $100,000, despite the long speeches, and he was adding $250,000 himself, bringing the total amount for The Boys & Girls Club of America to a whopping $350,000.
As for his own time management, despite the long speeches, Nate finished just 5 minutes over on the three hour broadcast ... so everybody wins! Well, except for those that didn't win in their category.