Nate Bargatze Jokes “They Can’t Cut You Now” on ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ as He Preps for Emmy Hosting Gig

2024 was the biggest year yet for Nate Bargatze, but the Emmy-bound comedian still can’t believe how far he’s come from being cut from his high school basketball team.

In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Bargatze opened up about family, fame, and why he’s still pinching himself as his career keeps soaring.

The stand-up superstar recently donated more than $1 million to his alma mater, Donelson Christian Academy in Nashville, where the gymnasium now bears his name. “Yeah, I was cut every year from my basketball team,” Bargatze admitted. “But now, you know, now they can’t cut you!”

That mix of humility and humor has fueled his rise. Bargatze quietly left New York at the height of his career in 2014 to move back to Tennessee for his daughter. “I always thought it was the first thing I did that wasn’t for me,” he said. “I wanted my daughter to grow up in a normal situation, as normal as it can be. And so it was like, ‘All right, let’s move back.’”

The move paid off: since then, Bargatze has sold more than a million tickets, released five specials, written a bestselling book, and even gone viral on Saturday Night Live. Now he’s stepping into his biggest gig yet: hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards next Sunday on CBS.

“I love show business. I love all of this,” he said. “You’re just curious to go, like, Well, what is that like? … I want to see the chaos. I want to feel the chaos.”

That chaos is coming fast. The day before the Emmys, Bargatze is scheduled to play back-to-back arena shows in Denver. But for a comic who thrives on the grind, it’s exactly how he likes it. And with his first feature film, The Breadwinner with Mandy Moore, due out next spring, Bargatze’s career shows no signs of slowing down.

You can watch the full CBS Sunday Morning segment on the comedian above.