Last Week Tonight wins Emmy award for second year in a row

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver has won the 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series.

After thanking Oprah Winfrey — just because “it would be inappropriate not to” — when he won the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series — Oliver noticed the talk show queen’s seat was empty.

“I’d like to thank Oprah’s seatfiller,” he said after honoring his wife. “I’ve only met Oprah once. It was like meeting the queen, only much better.”

This is the second year in a row the HBO program has taken home this award. Before that, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report had dominated the category since 2002. This is the seventh Emmy Award for the program, which also won two statues at this year’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards: Outstanding Variety Picture Editing and Outstanding Interactive Program.

In recent months, the show has aired stirring segments on the Trump administration’s announcement that it will end DACA; Trump’s failure to condemn Nazis after the events in Charlottesville, Virginia; and the tensions between the United States and North Korea. And this Emmy win isn’t the only recent good news for the show: Earlier this week, HBO renewed Last Week Tonight for three more seasons.

Last Week Tonight beat fellow nominees Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Late Show With James Corden, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Real Time With Bill Maher. k Series.

This was the show’s first nomination in the top variety talk category, where it beat fellow nominees Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (last year’s winner), Jimmy Kimmel Live, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, The Late Late Show With James Corden, and Real Time With Bill Maher.