The Emmys brought a mean 6.87 million viewers to ABC on Sunday night, a 54% rise in total viewers from the record-low 4.3 million who tuned into probably the most recent ceremony on Fox in the beginning of this 12 months.
In the important thing adults 18-49 rankings, the telecast averaged a 1.02 rating, up 17% from 0.87 in January. Per ABC, the 76th Emmys telecast posted the award show’s largest overall audience in there years, since its 2021 airing on CBS. It also outperformed ABC’s previous airing by 8% in total viewers, vs. the COVID virtual telecast in 2020 (6.39 million).
The January Emmys struggled for viewership, having been postponed from their original September 2023 date attributable to the Hollywood strikes and compelled to air against an NFL playoff game. Probably the most recent “typical” Emmys ceremony in September 2022 brought in 5.9 million viewers — which was considered a flop on the time, a 25% drop from 2021’s 7.4 million. The excellent news for Sunday’s telecast is that it was capable of beat that.
Sunday’s show did air in competition with the NFL, though the Texans-Bears game was of a much lower profile than the playoff game that drew viewers away from the Emmys in January. Disney’s recent dispute with DirecTV, which caused a two-week blackout of Disney-owned stations for DirectTV customers, was originally predicted to affect Emmy viewership, but access to ABC and other networks was restored on Saturday.
All in all, it’s been a string of adverse years for TV’s biggest night. In her review, Variety critic Alison Herman called Sunday’s Emmys a “drab” and “relatively muted affair,” nothing that “it’s hard to make a yearly awards show feel special when it’s staged twice in a single 12 months” and that the awards “largely served as a mirrored image of a less-than-vital moment in TV history, not a counterpoint.”
The show, produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment, still earned some decent marks for hosts Eugene and Dan Levy and in addition shattered several records — including probably the most wins ever in a single 12 months for a series (“Shogun,” with 18) and for probably the most ever in a single 12 months for a comedy (“The Bear,” with 11). The ceremony also had its share of surprises, most notably the ultimate win of the night, for Max’s “Hacks” as comedy series.
The uptick also reps an encouraging sign for awards shows generally; earlier this 12 months ABC also saw a rise in its rankings for the Oscars.
