Emmys 'not rigged': TV Academy fires back at Donald Trump

The Television Academy fired backat Donald Trump's claim that the Emmys are rigged. And celebrities are backing up the annual awards show.

In a tweet earlier this week with a link to its voting process,the academy said: "Rest assured, theEmmysare not rigged."

EllenSeiter, a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Southern California, says, while theEmmys"are an imperfect system" when it comes to certain types of productions and talent,Trump's past claims are "sour grapes."

"He's a sore loser in the TVindustry," she said.

Here's how it all came up and why it might be a factorinunderstanding Trump's personality.

How it came up

The response comesafter Hillary Clinton said duringWednesday's presidential debate that Trumphas a tendency to claim processes are rigged whenhe doesn't win.

"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," the Democratic presidential nominee said, referring to numerous tweets Trump had posted about the showin the past.

The Republican presidential nomineequickly interjected: "Should have gotten it."

In one 2012 tweet, Trump posted: "The Emmys are all politics, that's why, despite nominations, The Apprentice never woneven though it should have many times over."

Celebs weigh in

Following the debate, the TV Academy, the organization behind the Emmys,wasn't the only one defending the awards process.Celebrities joined in, winners and losers.

Nine-time Emmy winner and Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfustook to Twitter to back up the academy, as did her former Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander, who joked aboutlosing multiple times.

The bigger picture

While the discussion of the Emmys provided a few laughs during an otherwise intense final debateWednesday, it might not have had the same amount of attention had it not been forTrump's refusal that nightto guarantee he'd accept the election results.

Republican Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter, shed light on Trump's personality during the Washington Examiner's political podcast Examining Politics, just before Wednesday's final presidential debate.

The former Speaker of the House said Trump has the courage to challenge big policies, but thatthe presidential nominee also gets involved in "petty things that make no sense."

"There's a piece of his personality whichis very sensitive, particularly toanything which attacks his own sense of integrity or his own sense of respectability, and he reacts very intensely, almost uncontrollably, to those kinds of situations."

He cited Trump'stweet last weekabout Alec Baldwin's impersonation of him onSaturday Night Liveas an example.

"I think that's a weakness," Gingrich toldpodcast host David Drucker."I hope he grows out of it."