Ratings for the Emmy Awards have continued their climb from all-time lows as the television industry looks to shake off the shake-ups of recent years.
About 7.42 million viewers tuned in to watch the Nate Bargatze -hosted 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on CBS, according to Nielsen company data released Monday by the network. The night’s big winners were “The Studio,” “Adolescence,” “The Pitt” and late-night host Stephen Colbert, who got a huge outpouring of support from the Peacock Theater audience.
It was the most-watched Emmys telecast since 2021, and was up 8% from the 6.87 million that watched the “Shogun”-dominated ABC telecast in September 2024.
Sunday’s show was up more than 70% from the all-time low of 4.3 million from the Fox telecast of January 2024, which was delayed by months because of Hollywood’s writers and actors strikes.
The Emmys telecast rotates annually between the four broadcast networks.
The pandemic brought its own all-time low. The Emmys in 2020 on ABC, with no in-person audience and remote nominees attracted 6.1 million viewers. The show bounced back the following year with 7.4 million for CBS with help from an NFL game lead-in.
But NBC’s 2022 telecast dropped to 5.9 million, followed by the further dip in early 2024.
Sunday night’s telecast also had football as a lead-in in some regions of the West, but had to compete against a national game on NBC. The Emmy Awards have had to consistently compete with the NFL — by far the biggest force in broadcast and cable television ratings — in a way that no other awards show faces.
The Emmys lag well behind comparable shows, bringing less than half the viewers of the Oscars or Grammys and significantly fewer than the Golden Globes.
Like the Oscars, the show has had to reckon with prestige nominees that bring with them buzz but not big audiences. In the 1990s “Seinfeld” and “ER” were drawing massive viewer numbers along with their Emmy tallies in a way that “The Studio” and “The Pitt” do not.
Bargatze made a joke of the phenomenon in his show-opening sketch with “Saturday Night Live” cast members, in which he played TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth predicting the future of the medium.
“The shows that win an Emmy will achieve the highest level of artistry,” he said.
“And will have the most viewers,” scene partner Mikey Day said.
“Not even close,” Bargatze replied. “Most people will watch football and ‘Yellowstone.'”
The last Emmys to reach more than 10 million viewers was 2018, when it drew in 10.2 million. The show had nearly 22 million viewers in 2000, a level it’s unlikely ever to hit again given the vast and fractured entertainment environment.
But interest remains.
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they’ve watched an awards show, clips or both in the last year, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
