Good things come to those who wait. After being snubbed year after year, RuPaul Charles finally nabbed his first Emmy nomination this year for the eighth season of his long-running Logo TV series RuPaul’s Drag Race.
And tonight Charles upset the competition to earn his — and his show’s — first Emmy award at the Creative Arts Emmys as he picked up the Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program statuette. “Earlier this year I was quoted saying I’d rather have an enema than an Emmy,” he said while accepting the trophy. “But thanks to the Television Academy, I can have both!”
This is Logo TV’s first major Emmy win and only the second time the best reality show host Emmy has gone to a cable series. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn won for Lifetime’s Project Runway in 2013.
In taking the prize, Charles beat out the two-time defending winner, Hollywood Game Night‘s Jane Lynch, as well as stiff competition from Steve Harvey and Ryan Seacrest as well as previous winners Klum and Gunn of Project Runway and Dancing With the Stars‘ Tom Bergeron. Charles’ victory means that Seacrest wrapped his run on American Idol without getting an Emmy.
Clutching his statuette backstage, Charles said: “I came here thinking, ‘Wow, I got invited to the prom and I’m going to dance my ass off tonight. I didn’t expect I was going to have this in my hand for the dance.”
Resplendent in a hot pink suit with white polka dots, Charles also coined a phrase by saying he and the show deserved “condragulations.” He said Drag Race represents “the tenacity of the human spirit” and hopes it will help young people “navigate their own unique stories.”
RuPaul also had an emotional reaction to his Emmy nomination in July.
“I dedicate this nomination to outsiders everywhere,” he said in a statement at the time. “Brave souls who, against all odds, stick to their dreams and make the world a more colorful place. On behalf of those people — my tribe — I am so grateful.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race has been renewed by Logo for a ninth season.