What does 'EGOT' mean?

What do Whoopi Goldberg, Mel Brooks, Audrey Hepburn and John Legend have in common? They’re all part of an elite club known as “EGOT winners” — artists who’ve snagged at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award over the span of their careers. Yahoo Entertainment’s David Artavia explains the unlikely origin of the acronym and how a sitcom joke turned it into a common term.

Video Transcript

DAVID ARTAVIA: What do Whoopi Goldberg, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, and John Legend have in common? They're all part of an elite club known as EGOT winners.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: EGOT winner. I'm going to say it again. EGOT winner.

DAVID ARTAVIA: Artists who've snagged at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award over the span of their careers. Only 19 people in history have achieved competitive EGOT status, with an additional six qualifiers who've won at least one honorary award. The acronym is actually the brainchild of "Miami Vice" star Philip Michael Thomas.

Picture it-- in 1984, the man who played Tubbs gave himself the goal to win all four awards within five years. And while Thomas hasn't been nominated for any of them, Jamie Foxx, who played Ricardo Tubbs in the 2006 remake of "Miami Vice," is actually a lot closer to achieving EGOT status, with both an Oscar and a Grammy under his belt.

It wasn't until years later on a 2009 episode of "30 Rock" that the term EGOT became popularized after Tracy Morgan's character Tracy Jordan sets himself the same goal of winning all four awards--

- It's a good goal for a talented crazy person.

DAVID ARTAVIA: --and does so through a manner of hijinks and shenanigans. Now that we're in the thick of awards season, EGOT talk is everywhere. Elton John became the latest inductee at this year's Emmy Awards, though it doesn't seem like we'll see another in 2024 as we head into the Oscars-- unless, of course, Eminem somehow manages to stage a Tony Award-winning musical between now and April 25. Hey, anything is possible.