Emmys Producers Are Sorry for Playing John Oliver Off During Dead Dog Speech

Producers for Sunday night’s Emmys are sorry for playing their traditional “wrap it up” music during John Oliver’s unconventional acceptance speech.

In his monologue, the comedian got his son Hudson’s name wrong and paid homage to a deceased family pet.

“We have the most fantastic dog. She was at our wedding and she got us through the pandemic, she was with us for two pregnancies,” Oliver said before music began to cut him short. “Perfect choice of music,” the Last Week Tonight said of the somber tune that made him “feel like Sarah McLachlan.”

The music then stopped, and Oliver got to finish his rousing speech that honored “all dogs.”

“Play me off now,” he said before the music started up again.

“I apologize to John and his family for playing the music — and the dog,” Jesse Collins, an Emmys producer, told The Wrap on Monday. “We turned it off at his request and turned it back on when he said he wanted to be played off.”

“When he was going on about his dog, which was very sweet … we’re like, ‘OK, you got to wrap it up,’ and the music starts playing. And he’s like, ‘My dog is dead,’ and we were like, ‘Oh my god,’ just mortified,” Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, another producer, told the outlet.

According to these insiders, they have no knowledge of the winners’ speeches, so they couldn’t anticipate Oliver’s dog rant or know that his dog had died in the first place.

“John always gives us the fun moment,” Rouzan-Clay added.