Reunions couldn’t bring back Emmys from record low viewership
LOS ANGELES – The Emmy Awards telecast on Fox reached a record low audience of 4.3 million viewers, as the long-term trend of diminishing ratings for the show continues.
Nielsen said Tuesday that the Monday night show hosted by Anthony Anderson with “Succession” and “The Bear” raking in most of the top awards was down from the previous record low of 5.9 million for NBC’s telecast in 2022, the last time the event was held.
This year’s Emmys had a lot working against them. The award show not only was delayed four months from its usual September home by the prolonged actors and writers strikes, but the new January date put TV’s biggest awards in the thick of a crowded trophy season, and against stiff competition for viewers. The Golden Globes aired eight days earlier, on Jan. 7, and honored many of the same shows and actors. The smaller Critics Choice Awards aired just one night before the Emmys.
Fox faced an NFL wild-card game, which drew more than 20 million viewers, and coverage of the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the 2024 presidential nomination process.
Well-reviewed Emmys had fewer viewers than Golden Globes
The Emmys audience was less than half of the Golden Globes, which honored both TV and movies and had bigger stars in attendance including Taylor Swift, at 9.4 million viewers, up about 50% from last year’s show on NBC. CW’s much smaller Critics Choice Awards, which aired Sunday, averaged 1 million viewers.
The Emmys and Anderson received generally positive reviews for a show that spent much of its time honoring past television, with reunions and set re-creations from shows including “Cheers,” “Martin” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” The Hollywood Reporter praised its “polish, proficiency and emotion,” while USA TODAY called it “respectable,” praising a night that wasn’t “(too) cringey.”
But that didn’t help the continuing decline in numbers.
The last time the Emmys reached more than 10 million viewers was 2018, when it drew in 10.2 million. The show had 21.8 million viewers in 2000, a level it’s unlikely to reach again.
The height-of-the-pandemic Emmys in 2020 on ABC, with no in-person audience and remote nominees, set a new low at the time with 6.1 million viewers, but the show bounced back the following year with 7.4 million for CBS. (The four broadcast networks rotate airings of the show.)
The decline began again in 2022.
See the 2024 Emmys winners
With six awards each, the Roy clan of “Succession” and the found family of “The Bear” were the Emmys’ biggest winners. The HBO family dramedy and FX comedy dominated the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, including a best drama win for “Succession” and a best comedy win for “The Bear.”