‘Sunday Night Football’ Clobbers Virtual Emmys in Earliest TV Ratings

Sunday’s virtual Emmys ran into a shootout of a “Sunday Night Football” game, when “Schitt’s Creek’s” big night was overshadowed (in TV ratings, at least) by the Seattle Seahawks’ home win over the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots. Other NFL overruns also created a tough path for the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted Emmys. (Plus, there was a Western Conference Finals NBA game on cable. That’s an abnormality as during non-COVID years, basketball wraps up in June.) Due to the nature of live coast-to-coast television, the below preliminary Nielsen numbers for the broadcast networks carrying football — NBC and 50 minutes (on the east coast) for CBS — and for ABC’s Emmy Awards should be considered subject to significant adjustment. We’ll receive final numbers for the 72nd Emmys this afternoon. The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards are trending to be the lowest of all time. Football’s dominance over the annual best-of TV celebration is nothing new. The same thing happened last year.

NBC was first in ratings with a 3.5 rating/19 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 12.2 million, according to these early numbers. The first 30 minutes of the pregame show “Football Night in America” had a 1.4 and 5.9 million viewers. The next half-hour got a 2.2 and 8.2 million viewers. The remainder of the pre-kick show received a 3.7 and 13.3 million viewers. The Pats-Seahawks game itself posted a 4.2 and 14.1 million viewers.

CBS was second in ratings with a 1.7/9 and in viewers with 7.2 million. A highly rated NFL overrun meant the latest “60 Minutes” season premiere, which is heavily skewed by its lead-in, began at 7:50 p.m. for the east coast. “Big Brother,” which for simplicity sake we’ll say started at 8:30 p.m. in the east, drew a 1.1 and 5.1 million viewers. At 9:30, “Love Island” had a 0.6 and 2.4 million viewers. A rerun closed out primetime.

ABC was fourth in ratings with a 0.9/5 and in viewers with 5.1 million. At 7, “Celebrity Family Feud” had a 0.7/4 and 5 million viewers. From 8-11, the Emmys averaged a 1.0 and 5.1 million viewers. Univision was third in ratings with a 0.4/2 and in viewers with 1.5 million.

Fox was fifth in ratings with a 0.3/2 and in viewers with 1 million, airing all reruns on Sunday.

Telemundo was sixth in ratings with a 0.2/1 and in viewers with 834,000.

The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/0 and in viewers with 360,000, running just repeats.