(Sorry for the week delay. I was having computer issues last weekend)
The variety Christmas special has been a staple of holiday season programming since the early days of TV, and the vast majority of these have been hosted by professional musicians, usually because the headlining musician had a new Christmas album to promote. The ones not hosted by musicians are usually hosted by comedians who also sing, like Dean Martin or Bob Hope. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but the number of these things hosted by someone who does not know their way around a tune is fairly limited.
Nate Bargatze has had a terrible last 12 months, from his disastrous stint hosting the Emmys to his movie flopping to being outed as, if not MAGA, at least MAGA friendly. So it's easy to forget that, just a year and a half ago, Bargatze was on top of the world, or at least the top of the comedy world, with numerous stand-up specials, a high-grossing tour, and two acclaimed hosting performances on Saturday Night Live. It's the latter that likely lead directly to him getting a variety special on CBS, Nate Bargatze's Nashville Christmas, despite not being a singer.
Indeed, the whole "not being a singer" made this sort of a mirror image of a typical Christmas variety special. Instead of being mostly about singing with humorous banter limited to the between-song filler, here, it was mostly comedy, with no musicians (save for bandleader Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish fame) appearing until the special was roughly halfway over.
What this does have in common with a bunch of Christmas shows from the past is the only moderate-at-best amount of Christmas in it. Bargatze's opening monologue has a joke about the giant neon wreath behind him, but was mostly devoted to discussing first job as a teenager. There's a couple of filmed bits, only one Christmassy, and neither the main musical guest, Noah Kahan, nor the other comedian who got to do stand-up, Derrick Stroup, did anything remotely yule-related.
The "Nashville" in the title is no joke. The show was mostly filmed at the Grand Ole Opry itself, that first job that Bargatze talked about was at the now-defunct amusement park Opryland, and two of the three big filmed bits were very much tied to the city. The first was a fake tourist video, in which Bargatze, along with special guests Martina McBride and Jelly Roll (neither of whom are ever seen again during the special) encourages people to visit and then go home and not move to Nashville. It was cute, but hardly original, even if it did have a quick cameo from a former SNL Weekend Update host-turned-talk show host (no, not the one you wanted). The other, toward the end, had Bargatze be a coach for a day with the Tennessee Titans, mostly concerned about his missing Door Dash order.
Speaking of SNL, the show's big live comedy sketch was a variation of the "Washington's Dream" sketch from Bargatze's hosting stint. This time around, Bargatze played the Angel of the Lord, telling Mary, Joseph, and one of the Wise Men (played, respectively, by SNL ringers Ashley Padilla, Mikey Day, and Rucker) all about how the birth of Jesus will be celebrated 2000 years hence. Day got a co-writing and producing credit, but this was his only appearance on the show. Padilla didn't even get that, though she got a brief, thankless appearance a bit later. That, along with a bit in which Bargatze talks Christmas toys with some kids, was about the extent of Christmas in this Christmas special, save for the songs in and out of commercial breaks and the finale, where Carrie Underwood turned up to sing "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town".
The somewhat-SNL-like feeling that this special generated makes sense given that it was produced by Lorne Michaels (which might explain the Day writing/producing credit as well), though it obviously appeals more to Bargatze's fan base to SNL fans. Indeed, your enjoyment of Nate Bargatze's Nashville Christmas mostly relies on your enjoyment of Bargatze himself. I find him mildly amusing, but the special certainly didn't convince me I had been missing anything by not ever having seen his specials. Like many episodes of Saturday Night Live, this special was so-so, at best.
Next time: We wrap up this month of entries with a special from one of the most famous voices in opera.
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