Sean Spicer speaks at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
The 69th annual Emmy Awards were essentially a three-hour anti-Trump infomercial on Sunday night, but it turns out the Television Academy wasn’t so much into politics during the Obama administration.
Citing an “Obama team insider,” TheWrap reported that the Emmys scrapped a skit featuring then-President Obama back in 2013 because the show was “solely focused on TV and doesn’t address politics or politicians.”
So are politics only allowed on the Emmys when it’s an opportunity for Hollywood liberals to slam a conservative president?
“This whole thing reeks of hypocrisy,” the insider told TheWrap.
Ken Ehrlich, producer of the 2013 show, admitted to TheWrap that the Obama was skit was cut but he denied that the decision had anything to do with politics. (Reuters)
Trump was attacked from host Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue through the end of the three-hour program during this year’s event. Alec Baldwin even won an award for portraying Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” and used his speech to mock the president for not winning an Emmy during his time hosting “The Apprentice.”
Ex-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also made an appearance to poke fun at his tenure, prompting many media members to kvetch that CBS allowed the awards show to normalize a former member of the Trump administration.
Fox News’ Howard Kurtz defended Spicer’s cameo, noting that it was a “joke” and the mainstream media is acting like he’s supposed to hide for the rest of his life.
“It’s almost like his detractors want him to wear a scarlet letter,” Kurtz said.
Ken Ehrlich, producer of the 2013 show, admitted to TheWrap that the Obama was skit was cut but he denied that the decision had anything to do with politics. However, Politico obtained the script from Obama’s would-be skit, and it was basically an Obamacare promo.
“We were notified by the producers at the Emmys that they had this fun sketch idea to get the word out about the Affordable Care Act,” former Obama staffer Brad Jenkins told Politico.
The plan was for the fictional president from ABC’s “Scandal” and Jay Pharaoh, who portrayed Obama on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” to be interrupted by Obama in the middle of a conversation while in character as fictional president, according to the script obtained by Politico.
The Stephen Colbert-hosted 2017 Emmys were one of the least watched ever. (Reuters)
“I am the actual President,” Obama was going to say before launching into an Obamacare spiel.
The idea was scrapped by then-chairman Television Academy chairman Bruce Rosenblum, according to TheWrap.
“The most senior members of the academy’s TV committee, including Mr. Rosenblum, made it clear that it was not going to happen because of political reasons. Period,” the “Obama team insider” told TheWrap.
Rosenblum is now the president of business operations for the Disney/ABC Television Group.
A Television Academy spokesperson declined comment when reached by Fox News.
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