Emmy Awards Viewership Dives To All-Time Low; Down Double Digits From 2021 & Last NBC Broadcast
13.09.2022 - 23:15
/ deadline.com
Now all the trophies have been put on their respective shelves, it’s no slight to say the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards last night ended up being a tricky mix of the arcane, retro and optimistic, among other things. Off-screen, NBC’s Kenan Thompson hosted broadcast of television’s big night had to contend with the awkward reality of a match-up with Monday Night Football’s season debut on ABC and ESPN.
There was a white-knuckle 17-16 win for the Seattle Seahawks over the Denver Broncos and former teammate Russell Wilson in the Emerald City. Here in the City of Angels, there was a bit less drama and more déjà vu with HBO’s Succession, Euphoria’s Zendaya, and AppleTV+’s Ted Lasso scoring big Emmy wins for the second year in a row. HBO’s The White Lotus, Netflix’s Squid Game and ABC’s Abbott Elementary also took home some golden hardware.
Yet, with the Emmys airing on a Monday for the first time since 2018, a very different digital landscape today, declining award shows attraction, and that NFL face-off counter-programming, almost no one expected the 2022 ceremony to achieve any audience heights.
And no one will be disappointed.
Running a touch over three hours, the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards drew 5.92 million viewers and a 1.1/8 rating last night on NBC. Unsurprisingly, that is an all-time low for TV’s big night, which was also on Peacock
In context, that’s down 19% in sets of eyeballs from what the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards pulled in on CBS on a Sunday night last year. Also shown on Paramount+ and facing Sunday Night Football on NBC, the 2021 ceremony bucked the bookie’s prediction. The Cedric the Entertainer fronted show saw the 2021 Emmys bop up from the then all-time low of the 6.4 million who watched the semi-virtual 2020