Meanwhile, the now mercifully-cancelled Stephen Colbert late night show received nine nominations, more than that franchise ever received before, including when the infinitely more talented (and considerably less smug) David Letterman was host. Colbert’s final version is nominated for best variety series, writing for a variety series, directing for a variety series, production design for a variety/reality series, technical direction and camerawork, lighting design, sound mixing for a variety series/special, picture editing for variety programming and music direction. What’s especially ironic is that Colbert’s show, like all of the once reliably general audience-appealing talk shows, are notable for the absence of variety, with Colbert tied with the nauseating Jimmy Kimmel as the most one-note obsessed of all. The show has focused on denigrating Donald Trump, conservatives and Republicans, as well as any Americans supporting them, since Colbert took over from Letterman. What “variety”?

Writes conservative Hollywood columnist Christian Toto, stating the obvious but doing it well:

“What changed? Did the show get dramatically better over the last year? Did Colbert shake up the formula, adding inventive new bits to his show? Or, did the far-Left host get canceled for losing CBS $40 million a year and become a faux free speech martyr in the Trump era? It’s really hard to say.

“Just kidding. Emmy voters are sending a message tied to their political leanings. Full stop. To deny that is to suggest the sky isn’t blue.”

Bingo. As for Sheridan, it isn’t as if he’s a raging right-winger, but he certainly is willing to move into territory the Angry Left regards as taboo. “I’m pretty common and I’m going to tell stories that common people are going to understand,” the writer told Toto. “That’s most of America … You’re not going to win no Emmys with me, but I’m not trying to win Emmys. That’s not my goal. My goal is to sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare the shit out of them, excite them. That’s what I want to do, because that’s what I want from a show.”

No propaganda? No indoctrination? Why, it’s so crazy, it just might work!

To be fair, I sometimes think Sheridan is deliberately trying to make woke heads explode. The Mexican cartels are regular, and repulsive, villains on “Landman,” and Billy Bob’s manipulative wife (brilliantly played by former scream queen Ali Larter, who also was snubbed by Emmy voters) and bimbo daughter seem to have been created to give Gloria Steinem a stroke (or Bill Clinton, but for different reasons). That cavil aside, by snubbing “Landman,” Billy Bob, Larter and Sheridan, the Emmys are announcing that Hollywood cares more about politics than quality.

But we knew that.