Doggone it.
During the 2024 Emmys, when John Oliver gave the acceptance speech as “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” won the award for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, the comedian talked about his dead dog.
He was interrupted by playoff music, and the Emmys producers have since expressed regret.
“We had no idea that the dog that he was talking about had passed away,” executive producer Dionne Harmon told the Hollywood Reporter on Monday.
“If you look back, you’ll notice that we turned the music down the moment he said the dog had passed. We didn’t know!”
After an amusingly bumbling speech where Oliver, 47, accidentally called his son, Hudson, “husband” and quipped, “Ouch, that’s going to come back to haunt me!” the TV host said, “I also want to thank — this is going to be very silly — our dog. We had the most fantastic dog. She was at our wedding and she got us through the pandemic. She was with us through the two pregnancies.”
Oliver and his wife, former U.S. Army medic Kate Norley, 46, tied the knot in 2011. The couple share two sons: Hudson, 9, and a second son, 6, whose name they haven’t made public.
During the comedian’s speech, the playoff music cut in to usher Oliver offstage, right when he was talking about his deceased beloved family pet.
“Perfect choice of music. We had to say goodbye to her,” he commented, before jokingly cursing at the Emmys producers.
“F–k you, I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now,” he said, referring to the famous ASPCA commercials.
“She was an amazing dog. Ouch,” he continued, as the music grew louder.
Oliver added, “This isn’t just for her — this is for all dogs. You’re all very good girls. You’re very good boys. You all deserve a treat.”
He finished by saying, “Play me off now!”
Reflecting on the Emmys moment, Harmon said, “We’ve had some funny moments with John in the past about playing him off.”
“We didn’t know where he was going with it, but it seemed like he was a good sport. We never want to have to play people off.”