--- title: Presidential Debate: Donald Trump Thought Emmys Were Rigged description: Donald Trump thinks the Emmys were rigged against him due to politics, a position he reaffirmed during the final debate Wednesday. canonical: https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-20T03:40:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:47.663Z article:section: Politics og:title: Yes, Trump Thought the Emmys Were Rigged Against Him og:description: "I should've gotten it" og:url: https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4814 og:image:height: 2708 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yes, Trump Thought the Emmys Were Rigged Against Him twitter:description: "I should've gotten it" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Yes, Donald Trump Thought the Emmys Were Rigged Against Him > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. Donald Trump thinks the Emmys were rigged against him due to politics, a position he reaffirmed during the final debate Wednesday._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 20, 2016 3:40 AM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 20, 2016 3:40 AM UTC Donald Trump thinks the Emmys were rigged against him due to politics, a position he reaffirmed during [the final presidential debate](http://time.com/4536110/presidential-debate-donald-trump-last-stand/) Wednesday. During a discussion of Trump’s [recent claims that the presidential election might be rigged](http://time.com/4535364/donald-trump-rigged-election-fact-check/) against him, Hillary Clinton noted that Trump had made the same argument about the annual television awards back when he hosted _The Apprentice_. “There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him,” said Clinton. From 2004 to 2006, _The Apprentice_ went up against rival reality show _The Amazing Race_ for four Emmy awards, losing each time. Two awards were for [“outstanding reality competition program”](http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2004/outstanding-reality-competition-program) and two were for technical categories. Several years later, Trump tweeted criticism of _The Amazing Race_ and the Emmys, saying that the awards show had “no credibility” and the “same shows” win “over and over again” due to politics. “The Emmys are all politics, that’s why, despite nominations, The Apprentice never won—even though it should have won many times over,” he tweeted. At the debate, Trump doubled down on his complaint about not winning an Emmy. “I should’ve gotten it,” he said. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/250313493197238272) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/504250209262919680) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/252864821987508224) > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/250317882213412865) > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/329060403051102208) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/"},"headline":"Yes, Donald Trump Thought the Emmys Were Rigged Against Him","datePublished":"2016-10-20T03:40:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:47.663Z","description":"Donald Trump thinks the Emmys were rigged against him due to politics, a position he reaffirmed during the final debate Wednesday.","url":"https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election","Television","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Debate","caption":"Final Presidential Debate Between Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Held In Las Vegas","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/","name":"Yes, Donald Trump Thought the Emmys Were Rigged Against Him"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"Donald Trump thinks the Emmys were rigged against him due to politics, a position he reaffirmed during the final debate Wednesday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4537809/donald-trump-emmy-awards-debate/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```