After a promising jump last year, the 74th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards took a hit in total viewership on Monday and once again fell short.
Hosted by Kenan Thompson, the broadcast, which aired from 8-11:15 p.m. ET, only managed 5.9 million total viewers—down from 7.9 million in 2021. The ceremony received a 1.09 rating out of the advertiser-coveted 18-49. Demographics according to Nielsen data.
It is the first time the ceremony has aired on NBC since 2018, when it garnered nearly 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, as NBC is also home to Sunday Night Football.
The Emmys actually saw their highest viewership in many years during their last telecast in 2021, even surpassing its pre-pandemic 2019 numbers. The 73rd annual show on CBS managed to bounce back about 16% of viewership, growing from 6.4 million (a previous all-time low) to 7.9 million in 2020.
The viewership for 2021 was higher than in 2019, when around 6.9 million people tuned in. In fact, the Emmys were the only awards show last season that managed to avoid a crater in the ratings (the Oscars and Grammys didn’t fare nearly as well as their audiences).
But even so, the Television Academy celebrations have been one of the least-watched of the major awards shows in the past seven years. And the show was taking major setbacks before the pandemic, with a massive drop from 9 million viewers in 2019 to 2018.
Prior to 2018, the previous low for Emmys on ABC was 11.3 million in 2016. The following year, CBS telecasts of the show beat that number by just a hair, with 11.39 million viewers.
Monday night’s ceremony turned out to be a night of some surprises, with the victory largely playing out as predicted. 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 rotate through the major four broadcasters each year. Next year it will air on Fox.
