Two Fordham University alumni, part of the writing team behind the Late Night with Conan O’Brien show, won the Emmy for outstanding writing on a variety, music or comedy program at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 16.
Mike Sweeney (LAW ’96), the show’s head writer, and staff writer Chris Albers (FCLC ’90) were among a team of 16 writers for the late-night show to score the award, beating out writing teams for Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and The Late Show with David Letterman.
“So the rest of our writing staff is back in New York because we have a show tomorrow,” said Sweeney, who accepted the award on behalf the writing team. “Thanks to O.J., we’ll have a show tomorrow.”
Earlier this year, Sweeney won a Daytime Emmy for his work on the 2006 “webisode” series, The Office: The Accountants, a spin-off of the primetime show that aired online. His work on the Late Night with Conan O’Brien show has also netted him a nomination for a 2007 Writer’s Guild Award.
Albers, once a student of the late Robert W. Stone, Ph.D., the former Fordham English professor who mentored Denzel Washington (FCLC ’77), is also up for a 2007 Writer’s Guild Award for his work on the O’Brien show. Albers has been a writer on the show since 1995, and was elected president of the Writers Guild East in 2005.
