Ratings-wise, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel-hosted Emmy Awards isn’t looking promising — per the earliest numbers, the 68th annual show slipped a slight 4 percent from last year’s low.
For now, the special has an 8.4 rating/13 share, per the 56 metered-market households monitored by Nielsen. Last year’s Emmys — which took place on Sunday, September 20, 2015 — posted an 8.7/14. At the time, Fox’s turnout was down 20 percent from the prior year’s special, which NBC aired on a Monday night in August.
The 2014 version had scored a 10.9/18. NBC ran the celebration of television when it did due to the broadcaster’s “Sunday Night Football” rights — clearly, that move had paid off.
Andy Samberg hosted the show last year, battling NBC’s Seattle Seahawks-Green Bay Packers NFL game. Last night, Kimmel’s turn was up against Packers-Minnesota Vikings.
The top five U.S. markets this time around were New York (14.5/23), West Palm Beach (13.6/20), Miami (10.8/17), Philadelphia (10.5/16) and Chicago (10.3/17).
Fast affiliate numbers for last night should be out around 11 a.m. ET, but those aren’t particularly great from an accuracy standpoint. Final numbers should come in shortly after that; TheWrap will report both.
When all was said and done in 2015, the Emmys attracted a record-low 11.9 million total viewers. Soon, we’ll see if that all-time low gets replaced this year.
Despite the lackluster TV ratings forecast, Sunday’s awards show was definitely very good for some: Kimmel has received mostly rave reviews, while “Veep” and “Game of Thrones” repeated as best comedy and drama, respectively.
Plus, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” seemingly took home every other trophy, while “Transparent” fared well in the individual comedy categories. Check out the full list of winners here.