Tina Fey was crossing her fingers that Kendrick Lamar wouldn’t win best live variety special at the Emmys on Sunday (Sept. 14), but only because of how it might have affected her next pickleball date with Drake.
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While presenting the category at the 2025 ceremony, the comedian joked about her supposed conflicts of interest surrounding that night’s nominees for the award, which included both Dot’s record-breaking Super Bowl Halftime Show performance and Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special. “I am in an awkward position tonight, given my personal relationships to the nominees for outstanding live variety special,” Fey told the crowd, wringing her hands.
“Two of the nominees involve SNL, where I worked for nine years, so if they win, people might think I just opened the envelope and said, ‘SNL!’ out of habit,” she continued. “If Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime special wins, I’m really going to hear it from Drake. And Drake and I are supposed to play pickleball tomorrow.”
The actress’ quip earned a round of laughs from the crowd, who almost certainly remember how Lamar and Drizzy’s bitter feud played out last year. After the two rappers unleashed several diss tracks aimed at each other in 2024, their rivalry culminated in the Compton native directly calling out his nemesis in front of millions during the Halftime Show in February, staring right into the camera while performing Billboard Hot 100-topper “Not Like Us” and taunting, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young.”
With that in mind, Fey added, “Really, the only safe outcome for me would be the Beyoncé Bowl — so, as always, thank you, Beyoncé!”
As it turned out, the Mean Girls creator had nothing to worry about as far as her pickleball buddy was concerned. SNL50: The Anniversary Special ended up winning the prize over Lamar and Beyoncé’s Netflix special, as well as the 2025 Oscars, which were also nominated.
While accepting the award, SNL creator Lorne Michaels told the crowd, “I won this award for the first time 50 years ago, in 1975. I was younger and I had a lot of dreams — and not one of those dreams was that I’d still be doing the same show for the next 50 years, however, here we are.”
And while Lamar didn’t snag the Emmy, he still has a lot to show for his showcase at the 2025 Super Bowl. After performing hits such as “Humble” and “DNA” and multiple tracks from his GNX album, the rapper walked off the field at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome with the most watched Super Bowl Halftime Show of all time under his belt, earning 133.5 million viewers — more than the actual game itself.
