Update
9/15 6:11 AM PT — President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of America tells TMZ … “What an incredible night! Our heartfelt thanks to Nate Bargatze, CBS, and the Emmy Awards team for supporting Boys & Girls Clubs in such a big way. It was a true honor for our Club Kids to share the stage with the night’s winners, especially knowing some of our alumni have gone on to become Emmy winners themselves.”
“We are also deeply grateful to all who kept their speeches short in the spirit of this fun challenge and to maximize the impact for our young people. The generous $350,000 donation from CBS and Nate is a powerful investment in the dreams and great futures of millions of young people nationwide.”
Hollywood’s elite are usually known for their charitable contributions … but, Sunday night they took a whole lot more than they gave — ’cause they bankrupted a $100K pot meant for charity!
Here’s the deal … in the lead-up to the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards host Nate Bargatze told multiple outlets he had a way to keep the show on track in terms of time.

Getty
His plan was simple … he was putting up $100K for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America– and, each time an Emmy winner went up to give a speech, they had a chance to add to the total.

TMZ.com
For each second they were under the 45-second limit, he’d add $1,000 to the total. For each second they went over, he’d take $1,000 away.
The night started off strong … Seth Rogen gave a 39-second speech — so the pot started at $106K — but, then it all clearly went off the track.

Courtesy of Television Academy/CBS
Hannah Einbinder went way over the threshold … bringing the total from around $100K to closer to $80K — though she kindly offered to pay the difference after making a statement about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Palestine.

Courtesy of Television Academy/CBS
John Oliver took the bit as a challenge … speeding through the speech in order to screw over Bargatze — who kept saying he planned to pay every dime out of pocket.

Courtesy of Television Academy/CBS
The final total ended up in the negative numbers — they stopped counting once it hit -$60K — but it’s alright ’cause Bartgatze announced at the end of the show CBS is donating $100K, and he’s personally donating $250K to Boys & Girls Club for a total donation of $350,000.

BTW … the counter got A LOT of hate online — with many writing on social media it’s totally unfair to try and cut speeches for people who worked so hard to win their awards.
No harm, no foul ultimately … but, clearly this ain’t a good way for award shows to try and speed everything up — ’cause it didn’t even work!