Emmys Early Ratings Sink 10 Percent From Last Year to New All-Time Low

Monday’s 70th Emmy Awards on NBC sunk 10 percent in early ratings from last year, settling for a new all-time low with a 7.4 household rating. That Emmys decline is not as bad as the ones for the Oscars and Grammys, which dropped 16 percent and 20 percent year over year, respectively.

Last night was NBC’s highest-rated Monday since late 2015. The network pretty much tripled the overnight rating of its closest competition, CBS, which posted a 2.5. NBC’s 7.4 topped the combined rating of the rest of the Big 4 broadcast nets combined by 23 percent.

Final Emmys numbers — including total viewers — are expected to be reported later on Tuesday.

Also Read: Emmy Awards: The Complete List of Winners

The best-of-TV celebration aired on a weeknight this time around because of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” That game did pretty well to close out the weekend, so the scheduling worked out for the network.

Last year, the 69th annual Emmys on CBS hosted by Stephen Colbert dipped 2.4 percent from the prior year to a new low, per Nielsen’s household ratings. That 8.2 overnight rating was imperfect, however, as the Miami and Fort Myers markets were never reported due to Hurricane Irma. This time around we are missing the Raleigh-Durham market due to Hurricane Florence.

In 2016, the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted Emmys broadcast on ABC fetched an 8.4 in these earliest-available TV ratings, which had set a historic low of its own at the time.

Also Read: The Best and Worst Moments of the 70th Emmy Awards (Photos)

The Emmys rotate around the Big 4 broadcast nets. Fox has them next year.

The Best and Worst Moments of the 70th Emmy Awards (Photos)

With the 2018 Emmy Awards well under way, here are some of the highs and lows of this year's awards show.
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Best: Sandra Oh as a presenter

When presenting the award for Best Directing for a Comedy, Oh decided to speak from the heart in lieu of a prepared speech with her co-presenter Andy Samberg. The "Killing Eve" actress -- who herself was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama -- got so flustered that she ripped the card with the winner's name in half and announced "La La Land" as the winner. "Anything but that!" Samberg cut in.
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Worst: The Opening Number

While entertaining, the opening number was all about diversity in Hollywood. And while the lyrics "we solved it" were tongue-in-cheek, the first several winners were all white -- until Regina King won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie -- making the message fall flat.
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Best: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend presenting Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

The couple presented the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, and when Legend commented on what a year they've had, Teigen cut in to joke, "We know, we know" about her husband completing his EGOT.
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Worst: Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph

While Armisen and Rudolph are a funny pair, their bits in between presenters fell flat. And for a show that often runs long, it didn't seem a necessary way to spend air time.
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Best: John Mulaney's acceptance speech

When accepting his award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Mulaney thanked his wife, who couldn't be at the awards because she was in New York. Mulaney said that she told him, "I just can't fly across the country to watch you lose," which garnered laughs from the audience.
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Best: The proposal

During his acceptance speech for Outstanding Directing of a Variety Special for “The Oscars,” Glenn Weiss proposed to his girlfriend Jan Svendsen.

“Do you know why I don’t like to call you my girlfriend?” the director said. “Because I want to call you my wife.” The crowd inside the Microsoft Theater immediately started cheering, and Svendsen started nodding her head “yes.”
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