Jimmy Kimmel Doesn't Want to Win an Emmy in 2016

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t preparing an acceptance speech for the 2016 Emmys.

“Oh, I know I’m not gonna win,” says Kimmel, who just so happens to be hosting the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! is competing in the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category alongside Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (Crackle), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO), The Late Late Show With James Corden (CBS), Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO) and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC). Kimmel predicts John Oliver will take home the award, as he “does a great show” each week. Don’t pity Kimmel, who’s hosted his namesake show since 2003. “Honestly,” he admits, “I don’t care that much.”

Kimmel didn’t do any campaign this time around. “I had done that a couple times. Like we had an event where you invite the Emmy voters to come and you do like a panel. And there was another—a party where you meet people and stuff like that. And you know what? It’s a bummer, really. It makes you feel like a real piece of s–t in a way,” the host, 48, says in The Hollywood Reporter‘s Sept. 23 issue (where he poses as characters from Game of Thrones, Mr. Robot and The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story). “People shouldn’t vote for you because they like you or they met you at a bowling alley, they should vote for you if they think you’re the best one,” he explains. “And I don’t see myself doing that kind of thing ever again.”

So, what does Kimmel want instead?

“Mostly I just want to do well as host. I would rather get a laugh than the trophy. I’d rather have a funny [moment]. Even when I’m presenting or whatever, right?” he continues. “I just want it to go well and afterward everybody to say, ‘Oh, that was funny.’ That’s to me its own reward.”

Kimmel adds, “You know, you can’t put laughter on a shelf.”

He hopes Jimmy Kimmel Live! loses, because he’s prepared a “very strong bit” in response. Winning would “screw that up,” Kimmel explains. “I will be totally discombobulated if we win.”