Innovators, Events, Honors
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THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 81 SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
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Billy Eichner’s
Street Cred The host
looks back on 15 years
of ‘don’t judge a book by
its cover’ By Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin
B
illy on the Street’s path to a wide audience has been an unortho-
dox one. Its star, Billy Eichner, began peppering unsuspecting
New Yorkers with pop culture questions for videos for his live
shows in the East Village 15 years ago. He expanded the bit into its own
show for Fuse in 2011 and moved to truTV in 2015. But the Funny or
Die series left traditional TV to become a digital-only show in 2018. For
his sixth season (which included guests Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Jonas
Brothers and Kate McKinnon pretending to be Reese Witherspoon),
Eichner earned an Emmy nom for shortform variety series. The
winners of this category and 96 others will be doled out during the
two-night 71st annual Primetime Creative Arts Emmys on Sept. 14 and
15 (an edited version of the show will air Sept. 21 on FXX).What’s been the most impactful
change you have made to the show
over the years?
I’m proud of the early episodes
creatively, but the show certainly
found itself as we kept doing it.
I kept getting more confident
with it — making it bolder, more
absurd, and, in turn, the show
kept getting more popular. But
my process has stayed the same.
Creatively, I don’t think it’s bro-
ken, so I don’t want to fix it.Which guest are you most proud
of getting on the show?
Michelle Obama. [Having her
appear] made me feel that the
work we were doing was really
getting out there and that people
were appreciating it. And to
walk around New York City with
David Letterman for a few hours
was surreal.What unexpected lesson have you
learned from hosting this show?
It sounds like a cliche, but the les-
son I learn over and over again is
it’s truly a matter of “don’t judge
a book by its cover.” You walk up
to someone and you think, “Oh,
that person is young and hip, so
I’m sure they’ll have a lot to say
and they won’t be scared to talk to
me.” And then you go up to themand they have nothing to say and
they don’t necessarily know about
certain industries, even topics
that you think they might.What do you think of the Emmys
going hostless?
I do have a feeling that if people
like these hostless Emmys,
coming right after the hostless
Oscars, and the ratings are good,
we’ll see fewer hosts. It’s all a bit
of a cycle. If we go a few years
with hostless award shows, at
some point, one of the shows is
going to tank in the ratings, and
then someone is going to say,
“We need a host again — that’s
why the ratings are bad!” And
then there’ll be a host. It was
always tough — and now with
social media eating you alive, live
roasting you while it’s happen-
ing, while you’re doing one of the
toughest jobs in show business,
what’s in it for anyone?You’re very active on Twitter.
What’s your policy on how far you
push what you say?
I feel a responsibility to call out
injustice, inequality and hypoc-
risy when I see it — especially
when it affects various marginal-
ized communities and certainly
when it affects my own mar-
ginalized community, the LGBT
community. So I use my platform
to speak out against it because
what else can you do? When I do
it, if I do it eloquently, I feel that
the people do listen, and it has a
ripple effect. I can try to galva-
nize people to feel like they have
power, to speak truth to power
and feel like they’re not alone.Interview edited for length
and clarity.For a 2018 episode, Eichner persuaded people to
shame Emma Stone for not being on social media.
Primetime
Creative
Arts Emmy
Awards
Sept. 14 & 15
Microsoft
Theater9
Record noms the
series earned for
cinematography
(it has yet to win).4
Wins for fantasy/
sci-fi costumes, with
a fifth in contention
this year.3
Previous wins for
stunt coordination,
the current record.
It’s up for its fourth.6
Previous wins for
visual effects. If it
wins again, it will
top its own record.GAME OF THRONES GETS CRAFTY
HBO’s juggernaut, up for a record
32 nominations, likely will break a few more
records at the Creative Arts Emmys