2025 Emmy Awards
Hollywood Bankrupts Donation For Boys & Girls Club …
Nate Bargatze, CBS Still Pay Up
Published
Hollywood’s elite are usually known for their charitable contributions … but, Sunday night they took a whole lot more than they gave — ’cause they bankrupted a $100K pot meant for charity!
Here’s the deal … in the lead-up to the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards host Nate Bargatze told multiple outlets he had a way to keep the show on track in terms of time.
His plan was simple … he was putting up $100K for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America — and, each time an Emmy winner went up to give a speech, they had a chance to add to the total.
For each second they were under the 45-second limit, he’d add $1,000 to the total. For each second they went over, he’d take $1,000 away.
The night started off strong … Seth Rogen gave a 39-second speech — so the pot started at $106K — but, then it all clearly went off the track.

Courtesy of Television Academy/CBS
Hannah Einbinder went way over the threshold … bringing the total from around $100K to closer to $80K — though she kindly offered to pay the difference after making a statement about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Palestine.

Courtesy of Television Academy/CBS
John Oliver took the bit as a challenge … speeding through the speech in order to screw over Bargatze — who kept saying he planned to pay every dime out of pocket.

Courtesy of Television Academy/CBS
The final total ended up in the negative numbers — they stopped counting once it hit -$60K — but it’s alright ’cause Bartgatze announced at the end of the show CBS is donating $100K, and he’s personally donating $250K to Boys & Girls Club for a total donation of $350,000.
BTW … the counter got A LOT of hate online — with many writing on social media it’s totally unfair to try and cut speeches for people who worked so hard to win their awards.
No harm, no foul ultimately … but, clearly this ain’t a good way for award shows to try and speed everything up — ’cause it didn’t even work!