Who’s Hosting the 2018 Emmy Awards?

The 2018 Emmy Awards are less than a week away, and a couple of familiar faces will be taking the stage as hosts this year: Michael Che and Colin Jost.

The two comedians host Weekend Update almost every weekend on Saturday Night Live. They are known for skewering the Trump Administration in brutal one or two-line jabs. However, when discussing the gig in an interview with Vanity Fair, the duo said that they hope to make the award show “less political than normal.”

“It is kind of fun for us to do something that is not political,” Jost said. “The exciting part is to do things about television and that particular awards ceremony and make it, in general, less political than normal. There’s a lot to celebrate in television right now. It’s a very strong time.”

As Jost and Che pointed out themselves, they are the first presenters to host the Emmys as a pair since Jenna Elfman and David Hyde Pierce in 1999. “And somehow that’s a real fact,” they added dryly.

While they will not be in character as the sardonic newscasters they portray on TV, Jost and Che are in a way representing Saturday Night Live at the award show. They are joined by their usual boss, Lorne Michaels, who is executive producing the Emmys broadcast. NBC executives have made it perfectly clear that they are pushing their top talent forward for a reason this season.

“NBC is thrilled to be the home of this year’s Emmy Awards, and with Colin and Michael in the driver’s seat as hosts, along with surprise appearances by other cast members of Saturday Night Live, I think we are in for one of the funniest awards shows in a long time,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“We’re proud of our deep comedy roster at NBC, and Michael and Colin, along with the return of king of comedy producer Lorne Michaels, will make this the must-see comedy event of the year,” added the company’s alternative and reality group president Paul Telegdy.

In the same article, The Hollywood Reporter noted that SNL is in the midst of a sort of “rennaissance recently. As always, turbulent political times have created a dearth of relevant, instantly relatable material for the show. They have also struck gold once again in terms of high-profile impressions, as Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump turns out to be just as profitable as Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin.

One controversial discussion Jost and Che plan to avoid is the Me Too Movement, which took over the Golden Globes and other award shows earlier this year.

“I think that by [the Emmys], people are going to be desperate to give men a chance, finally,” Jost joked. “It’ll probably be #HeToo by then.”

The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards air on Monday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.