Emmys Viewership Drops to a New Low

The Oscars, Grammys and Tonys all had viewership beneficial properties this yr, reversing current declines.

However not the Emmy Awards.

Viewership for Monday evening’s Emmys dropped to a document low, with 5.9 million tuning in to observe the ceremony, based on Nielsen.

That was about 1.5 million fewer than for final yr’s ceremony, and it was decrease than in 2020, when the principally digital ceremony garnered 6.1 million viewers, which had been the document low.

A part of the Emmys rankings drop may be defined by its Monday evening time slot, which usually depresses viewership totals. NBC broadcast this yr’s Emmy Awards — the 4 main broadcast networks rotate airing the annual ceremony — and slotted it for a Monday evening to keep away from a battle with the community’s Sunday Evening Soccer rights. In each 2018 and 2014, the final two instances NBC aired the Emmys on a Monday, viewership totals dropped from the Sunday evening ceremony the yr earlier than.

NBC didn’t disclose the quantity of people that watched the Emmys on Peacock, which was additionally streaming the ceremony dwell.

In fact, a part of the rankings downside may be with the present itself. Kenan Thompson, the “Saturday Evening Dwell” veteran, hosted the affair, and evaluations had been decidedly blended. The New York Occasions known as the ceremony “forgettable,” and The New Yorker stated the present “was ineptly written and paced.”

It most likely didn’t assist issues that the winners had been a bit predictable. Each “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” received for a second time, in the very best drama and comedy classes, respectively, and “The White Lotus” overwhelmed the limited-series classes, taking dwelling 5 awards on Monday evening.

This yr’s Emmy Awards was a full return to the Microsoft Theater for the primary time since 2019 (final yr’s ceremony was held in a tent in downtown Los Angeles). Producers of the Emmys additionally put nominees at tables crammed with bottles of wine and champagne, Golden Globes fashion, to maintain the temper gentle, and hold viewers hooked. This time round, it didn’t work.