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The 75th annual Emmy Awards hit a record ratings low during their Monday night ceremony.
An audience of 4.3 million viewers tuned in for TV’s biggest night, according to Nielsen fast national figures, marking a new record low after the 2022 show hit a previous all-time low with 5.9 million viewers. Viewership for Monday night’s broadcast on Fox was down 27% from the 2022 show. This story will be updated with the final Nielsen data when it is made available.
After postponing its previously scheduled September telecast due to the Hollywood double strike of both actors and writers, the show also scored a 0.85 rating in the key broadcast demo among adults 18-49. It competed for viewership against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles, marking the first time the awards show has aired against an NFL playoff game. It was also held on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
Still, the three-hour show marked Fox’s most-watched Monday unscripted telecast since June 2015, excluding sports, as well as the network’s most-watched Monday with entertainment programming in over a year-and-a-half, since May 2022.
For reference, the Emmys delivered its highest viewership of the past five ceremonies in 2021 with 7.8 million viewers — a 21.9% increase from the 2020 show, which garnered 6.4 million viewers.
The ceremony was not held nor broadcast in 2023 due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that left its September date uncertain, leading to it being postponed until Jan. 15, 2024 to ensure a talent-filled show. To maintain the typical Emmys cadence, a second 2024 ceremony is planned to be held in the fall.
With awards season in full swing ahead of March’s Oscars, viewership for the 2024 Golden Globes more than doubled viewership for the Emmys as the Globes brought in 9.4 million viewers when they aired on Sunday, Jan. 7. The Globes grew their audience by a whopping 50% from last year’s ceremony, which brought in 6.3 million total viewers.
Prior to this year’s Emmys, “Live From E!: Emmys,” hosted by Laverne Cox and comedian Heather McMahan from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET, scored 375,000 viewers — up 11% from the 2022 show — with its demo viewership for adults 18-49 up 8%.
Overall, E!’s Emmys coverage, which also included its “Countdown” and “After Party” shows, saw a 7% increase in total viewers when compared to 2022.
