After what appeared to be a promising bounce back last year, the 74th annual Primetime Emmy Awards took a hit in total viewership on Monday and have once again sunk to an all-time low.
Hosted by Kenan Thompson, the broadcast, which aired from 8-11:15 p.m. ET, only managed about 5.9 million total viewers — which is down from 7.9 million in 2021. The ceremony received a 1.09 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen data.
This is the first time the ceremony has aired on NBC since 2018, when it secured about 10.2 million total viewers (which, at the time, was a historic low for the Emmys). That was also the last time the show aired on a Monday, since NBC is also the home of Sunday Night Football.
The Emmys actually saw its highest viewership in several years during its last telecast in 2021, even surpassing its pre-pandemic 2019 numbers. The 73rd annual show on CBS managed to bounce back about 16% in viewers, increasing from 6.4 million in 2020 (the previous all-time low) to 7.9 million.
The 2021 viewership was higher than in 2019, when about 6.9 million people tuned in. In fact, the Emmys was the only awards show last season that managed to escape a crater in ratings (the Oscars and the Grammys didn’t fare nearly as well with their audiences).
But still, the Television Academy’s ceremony has remained the least watched of the major awards shows over the past seven years. And the show was taking large blows pre-pandemic, declining steeply in 2019 from the 9 million viewers it secured in 2018.
Prior to 2018, the previous low for the Emmys was 11.3 million on ABC in 2016. The next year, the show’s CBS telecast beat that number by just a hair with 11.39 million viewers.
Monday night’s ceremony turned out to be a night of few surprises, with wins playing out largely according to predictions. In the end, it was HBO’s limited series “The White Lotus” that took home the most trophies, followed by “Ted Lasso” and “Succession.” Read the full list of winners here.
The Emmys rotates through the major four broadcasters each year. Next year it will air on Fox.
