President Donald Trump is obsessed with awards shows.
For years, the real-estate baron-turned-leader of the free world snarkily live-tweeted the Academy Awards, would call in to Fox & Friends the following morning to recap the ceremony, and once suggested—via a ranty video taken from his desk—that he should host the Oscars. Though never nominated for an Oscar himself, Trump did famously take home a Razzie award for Worst Supporting Actor for his pouty, cringeworthy turn in the atrocious 1989 rom-com Ghosts Can’t Do It.
But Trump’s Oscars fixation pales in comparison to his bizarre fascination with television’s Emmy Awards.
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His reality-TV program, The Apprentice, was nominated for a grand total of nine Emmys during its run but never won, which led Trump to tweet dozens of times about how the Emmys were rigged (a precursor to his claims of a “rigged” election prior to his actually winning). Trump even appeared at the 2006 Emmys in a bit that saw the tacky billionaire dressed as a farmer singing the Green Acres theme.
At the recent Emmys, host Stephen Colbert mocked President Trump for his Emmys exasperation during his monologue, and additional shots at Trump were taken by several presenters and award winners from stage. This led Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway to go on cable news and criticize the Emmys for its “insults about our leader.”
On Wednesday night’s edition of The Late Show, Colbert commended Trump for his “pretty good” responses during these disasters over the last several weeks, including tweets to Mexico in the wake of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, and to Puerto Rico after it was hit by Hurricane Maria, with President Trump tweeting, “Puerto Rico being hit hard by new monster Hurricane. Be careful, our hearts are with you- will be there to help!”
“That was a strong and presidential response that lasted for about 18 minutes, because then, he tweeted about something that truly seemed to upset him,” said Colbert.
Yes, the president of the United States is still apparently obsessed with the Emmys.
“Now, wait a second. That can’t be right. Worst ratings of all? That can’t be right. I swear I heard someone say at the Emmys that they were the highest-rated ever. I guess… I guess I find this hard to believe,” joked Colbert, referencing former White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s controversial cameo.
“Here’s the thing: This is not something to be sad about. I’m not even sad about it, and I was the host of the Emmys!” Colbert continued. “But I do want to point out that every single part of that tweet was factually inaccurate. The Emmys weren’t ‘last night’ from when he tweeted it, they were Sunday night. I checked the TV schedule and he must have been watching NCIS: New Orleans. And it wasn’t the worst-rated Emmys, because according to the Nielsen ratings, 11.4 million people watched it, slightly more than last year’s lowest-ever audience of 11.3 million. That’s right! We had the second-worst ratings of all-time. In your face!”
Colbert then led his crowd in a chant of “We suck less!” which, unlike Trump’s tweet, appears to be accurate.
