Desus & Mero to Emcee TCA Awards

Desus & Mero, hosts of the Showtime talk show bearing their name, will emcee the 35th annual TCA Awards, given out Aug. 3 by the Television Critics Association at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

Nominees will be announced in mid-June.

Daniel “Desus Nice” Baker and Joel “The Kid Mero” Martinez are writers, comedians, podcast hosts and television personalities. Before their Showtime series launched in February, they hosted a show on Viceland. Guests on their Showtime show, Desus & Mero, have included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ben Stiller, Spike Lee and Cory Booker.

Their late-night show is weekly on Showtime, while Desus & Mero do it twice a week in the summer. The pair also hosts the podcast Bodega Boys.

Previous hosts of the TCA Awards include Robin Thede, Kristin Chenoweth, James Corden, Terry Crews, Bryan Cranston, Key & Peele, Ellen DeGeneres, Conan O’Brien and Drew Carey.

“Desus & Mero have spent the past decade establishing themselves as fresh, unpredictable forces, as vital in the bodega as in the Beverly Hilton ballroom,” said Daniel Fienberg, TCA president and The Hollywood Reporter Chief TV Critic. “We are honored to have them on hand, as we commemorate a landmark television season and 35 years of the TCA Awards. I can’t wait to hear how they kick off the show. Nobody is safe, but as long as Tucker Carlson doesn’t win anything, it should be a fun night!”

The TCA gives awards across 12 distinct categories, highlighting achievements in drama, comedy, reality, youth programming, sketch/variety, news and information, and others.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.