Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers return with the fifth annual Las Culturistas Culture Awards, taped last month at the United Theater on Broadway. For the 2026 show airing Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo and Peacock, the duo explain why they refuse to repeat jokes, h
Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers walk into the awards-show season with a simple rule: don’t recycle punchlines.
For their fifth annual Las Culturistas Culture Awards. the podcast hosts are back with a comedy special that both spoofs and celebrates pop culture from the past year. The show returns Wednesday night, taped last month at the United Theater on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. It also marks the pair’s second televised iteration of the LCCAs.
“The cool thing about our show is we get to see the year unfold and we get to see what’s hitting in pop culture. so that kind of says a little bit to us about what kind of direction we should be moving in. ” Rogers said. “It’s an excuse to interact with what people are interacting with. but we have to kind of wait and see; you can’t think too much about it.”.
The premise leaves them with plenty to mine, he added. “There’s a million things to riff on with these awards shows. so you’re never running out of terrain — and also. there’s so many different types. Our design team does an amazing job of making our show malleable so that they can kind of satirize anything that any awards show is doing: be it the VMAs. the Oscars. even something like the SAG Awards. ” Rogers continued. “Everything’s on the table going forward. If it happens in an awards show, we can find a way to satirize it. But then once we do that joke as best as we can. it would be diminishing returns to do it again.”.
That “wipe it clean” approach shapes how they plan the show’s structure. down to the segments that typically recur in awards specials. Yang pointed to one clear carryover from last year: “The only real rollover from last year is Lisa Rinna doing Outfit of the Year. but we really did have an early-on discussion about. do we do another take on the In Memoriam like we did last year?. How should we work in these musical numbers, these Record of the Year nominees structurally into the show?”.
Then came the decision that, in Yang’s telling, helped the team stop anchoring itself to last year’s template. “That was a really liberating moment. when Matt showed up to the room one day and was like. ‘Guys. I think we shouldn’t stress too much about how to quote-unquote ‘Top’ last year with the In Memoriam segment.’ Let’s just wipe it clean. build this from scratch again. because that’s what worked.”.
For all the category chatter and stage-ready satire, one thing stays remarkably consistent: the duo’s access. Despite airing on Bravo and Peacock, Bowen and Yang praised NBCUniversal for not forcing any symphony on them or their unique categories.
“It has been my No. 1 streamer for three years in a row now. It’s just surreal to see your idea on that splash page. on that landing page. but it just lives alongside them so seamlessly. ” Yang shared. “Sure. there’s a lot of integration. if you want to call it that. but it is the culture that we consume.”.
Rogers added that the show’s relationship with NBCUniversal brands isn’t built on mandates. “One misconception people might have is that we have to include a lot of NBCUniversal or Peacock or Bravo stuff. We’re never asked to do anything, it’s just that we enjoy a lot of that content. I don’t think that anyone is surprised when they watch the show if they listen to our podcast that these things are there. ” he said. “They’re really great about allowing us to bring in some other IP. It was important to us to be able to have free reign on really anything. because we’re satirizing awards shows and the entertainment industry and the culture. not just this brand.”.
With that creative freedom—and a rule against repeating themselves—the 2026 Las Culturistas Culture Awards are ready to unfold. See what defines culture when the show airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo and Peacock.
Bowen Yang Matt Rogers Las Culturistas Culture Awards LCCAs Bravo Peacock United Theater on Broadway Downtown Los Angeles comedy special pop culture Lisa Rinna Outfit of the Year In Memoriam