Emmy Awards Viewership Hits New Low
September 19 2016 - 4:40PM
Dow Jones News
Viewership for the 68th Emmy Awards fell slightly to a new
ratings low as "Sunday Night Football" and a JonBené t Ramsey
documentary on CBS chipped away at ABC's broadcast of the
television industry's awards ceremony.
An estimated 11.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the Emmys,
according to Nielsen figures cited by ABC, down from 11.9 million
in 2015. Last year's telecast on Fox, which also struggled against
NFL football, was down from 15.6 million in 2014, when NBC held the
event on a football-less Monday night in August.
The figures come as big awards shows, long thought of as among
the last must-watch bastions in the live television ecosystem,
experience ratings drops. Earlier this year, the Golden Globe
Awards on NBC slipped 4.2% from the year prior to 18.5 million,
while the Oscars on ABC fell 8% to 34.3 million.
Even with ratings declines, awards shows like the Emmys remain a
draw for advertisers because they attract big live audiences at a
time when more viewers are watching TV on their own schedules and
skipping through ads on their DVRs.
Veteran shows dominated the awards at this year's Emmys, which
were hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, with HBO's "Game of Thrones" and
"Veep" winning best drama and best comedy, respectively, for the
second straight year.
Rami Malek won best actor in a drama for "Mr. Robot," marking
cable network USA's first win in the category, while Jeffrey Tambor
won his second consecutive award for best actor in a comedy for
Amazon's "Transparent." Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her fifth straight
award for her performance in "Veep."
FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" also
commanded the night, with wins for outstanding limited series and
acting awards for Courtney B. Vance, Sterling K. Brown and Sarah
Paulson.
According to Amobee Brand Intelligence, there were 1.45 million
tweets surrounding the #Emmys hashtag. Kate McKinnon, who won best
supporting actress in a comedy for her performance on "Saturday
Night Live," generated the most Twitter buzz of any nominated
actor, with about 28,000 tweets.
Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2016 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)
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