President Donald Trump taunted the Emmy Awards and its strong anti-Trump bent on Tuesday, pointing out the show's low ratings in a tweet.
Hosted by liberal comedian Stephen Colbert, Sunday's Emmys contained dozens of Trump jokes and criticisms from Colbert and the largely progressive crowd of presenters and award-winners.
Trump appeared to reference their criticisms of him by saying the "smartest people" are the "deplorables," a term Hillary Clinton infamously coined for many of Trump's supporters.
"I was saddened to see how bad the ratings were on the Emmys last night—the worst ever. Smartest people of them all are the "DEPLORABLES," Trump tweeted.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/910332992756834304
The Emmys, which aired on CBS, got only 11.38 million viewers, matching the all-time low set by the 2016 awards hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
Colbert, whose "Late Show" monologues routinely focus on lampooning Trump's administration, made a point Sunday of noting Trump never won an Emmy for "The Apprentice" and suggested he might not have run for president if he'd won one.
"So in a way, this was all your fault," Colbert said. "I thought you people loved morally compromised anti-heroes. You loved Walter White. He's just Walter much whiter."
The opening also featured a cameo from Trump's first press secretary, Sean Spicer, who poked fun at his claim that Trump's inauguration audience was the largest in history.