Emmy Awards viewership rises by over 50% to reverse previous record lows

The recent 76th Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast on ABC drew in nearly 7 million viewers, marking a significant increase of over 50 percent from the previous ceremony in January, which had recorded a record low audience. This year’s award show featured victories for popular shows such as “Shogun,” “Hacks,” and “Baby Reindeer.” The event returned to its traditional mid-September scheduling after the January ceremony was postponed by strikes in Hollywood. The January ceremony, broadcasted on Fox, had only 4.3 million viewers, the lowest in history.
ABC announced on Monday that the Emmys telecast, hosted by Eugene and Dan Levy, attracted 6.87 million viewers, showing a substantial increase of 54 percent despite facing competition from NFL football. The 2020 Emmys, held during the peak of the pandemic, had 6.1 million viewers and were entirely remote with no in-person audience. The following year, the Emmys garnered 7.4 million viewers on CBS, aided by an NFL game lead-in, but the viewership for the NBC 2022 broadcast dropped to 5.9 million, with a further decline in January 2022.
The Emmys telecast typically cycles among the four major broadcast networks annually. The last time the Emmy Awards saw over 10 million viewers was in 2018, with an audience of 10.2 million. In the year 2000, the show reached an impressive 21.8 million viewers, a milestone unlikely to be surpassed again.