Stephen Colbert may be raking up the numbers with his politically charged rhetoric on The Late Show, but the same could not be said for the 69<sup>th Primetime Emmy Awards that he hosted recently. According to records, the 17 September event earned the second-lowest ratings of all time, managing to hit 11.4 million viewers, compared to 2016's 11.3 million.

And while industry experts have offered their various opinions on the reasons for the plummeting numbers, the president of the United States also decided to step in and offer his views as well.

"I was saddened to see how bad the ratings were on the Emmys last night - the worst ever," he wrote on Twitter on 20 September. "Smartest people of them all are the DEPLORABLES."

Trump has not had the best relationship with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which chooses the Emmy winners each year. In 2013, the real estate mogul tweeted that he had not won an award for The Apprentice because of his political standing.

"According to many, and while nominated, I would have won the Emmy many times except for my politics. @PrimetimeEmmys," he tweeted at the time. The Apprentice was nominated for outstanding reality-competition program in 2004 and 2005 but did not win. Over the past few years, Trump has taken it upon himself to criticise the award show each year, mocking the winners as well as the academy itself.

At the recent awards event, Colbert had joked to the audience at the Microsoft Theatre that they were responsible for Trump getting elected president because they did not give him an Emmy when they had the chance (and change the course of history).

With the 'sad' ratings for the Emmy Awards, Trump may just have had the last laugh this time around.

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