Emmy Awards Viewership Falls To New All-Time Low – Deadline

There was a white-knuckle 17-16 win for the Seattle Seahawks over the Denver Broncos and former teammate Russell Wilson in the Emerald City. Here in the City of Angels, there was a bit less drama and more déjà vu with HBO’s Succession, Euphoria’s Zendaya, and AppleTV+’s Ted Lasso scoring big Emmy wins for the second year in a row. HBO’s The White Lotus, Netflix’s Squid Game and ABC’s Abbott Elementary also took home some golden hardware.

Yet, with the Emmys airing on a Monday for the first time since 2018, a very different digital landscape today, declining award shows attraction, and that NFL face-off counter-programming, almost no one expected the 2022 ceremony to achieve any audience heights.

And no one will be disappointed.

Running a touch over three hours, the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards drew 5.92 million viewers and a 1.1/8 rating last night on NBC. Unsurprisingly, that is an all-time low for TV’s big night, which was also pn Peacock

In context, that’s down 19% from what the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards pulled in on CBS on a Sunday night last year. Also shown on Paramount+ and facing Sunday Night Football on NBC, the 2021 ceremony bucked the bookie’s prediction. The Cedric the Entertainer fronted show saw the 2021 Emmys bop up from the then all-time low of the 6.4 million who watched the semi-virtual 2020 shindig on ABC.

Of course, that year to year comparison only goes so far with the Emmys on a Monday.

In that context, the crowd tuning in for 2022 Emmy Awards fell a very harsh 41% from the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards. Among the 18-49 demo, the decline was 54%.

Held on September 17, 2018 on a Monday on NBC, the Lorne Michaels produced and Michael Che and Colin Jost hosted event featured appearances from Kenan Thompson and John Legend like this year. The Game of Thrones dominated 2018 Emmys also was up against a very well watched MNF as the Chicago Bears tore into the Seahawks (not those guys again!) with a 24-17 win.

In a pre-Peacock era, the final numbers for the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards saw the show snare 10.17 million viewers. An all-time Emmy low at the time, that number seems almost aspirational nowadays.

To give further texture to the 2022 Emmy viewership results, we will update this post with MNF data when it becomes available to us from Disney-owned ESPN and ABC. We do know that on the broadcast net, the Seahawks vs. Broncos game garnered  10.29 million viewers.