Ratings for the Emmys have fallen to an all-time low, with this year’s ceremony attracting just 11.3 million viewers.
The show, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for ABC, fell 5% from last year’s broadcast and 22% in the key demo of adults aged 18-49. There was major competition from Sunday Night Football on NBC and a strong performance by the first part of the CBS documentary The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey, as well as continued coverage of the New York and New Jersey bombings. In previous years, ratings have been boosted by NFL lead-ins.
Despite the drop, Nielsen reported that the telecast did score 25.9 million unique viewers for the night, which accounts for anyone who watched more than six minutes of the show.
The news follows an eight-year low for this February’s Oscars and a 34% year-on-year drop in viewers for August’s MTV VMA awards.
This year’s ceremony was dominated by The People v OJ Simpson and Game of Thrones, which became the most awarded TV show in Emmys history, breaking Frasier’s record. Other key winners included Mr Robot’s Rami Malek as lead actor in a drama and another win for Julia Louis Dreyfus as lead actress in a comedy for Veep.
