As Douglas Pucci reported Tuesday on The Programming Insider, hardly anybody watched Fox’s broadcast of the 75th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
Part of the tune out could be blamed on confusion. The Emmys usually air in September at the start of the TV season. It was pushed back four months due to the actors’ strike, which wasn’t resolved until December.
Blame the NFL for gang tackling the event. Bad weekend weather conditions moved the NFL playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers to Monday night. Football is still one of the strongest ratings magnets on broadcast television.
As a result, the Emmys were thrown for a loss. Monday night at 8 p.m., 16.8 million ABC viewers watched Monday Night Kickoff, while only 3.6+ million caught host Anthony Anderson’s opener and the emotional Christina Applegate moment during The Emmys first half hour.
At 8:30 p.m., it was football 17.9 million; Emmys 3.721 million.
The Emmys likely did not fare any better in Canada. Bell Media’s CTV, home to most major award shows, booted the special over to CTV2 Monday night and hosted the football game instead. Go Bills.
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What most viewers in both countries missed was an outstanding, nostalgia-filled evening. The 75th anniversary brought casts from the past together to help present some awards, including shows such as Cheers, All in the Family, Ally McBeal, Grey’s Anatomy, I Love Lucy and The Sopranos. A highlight for me was seeing All in the Family‘s Meathead and Gloria, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers, back in Archie and Edith’s old living room.
Throughout the night, presenters were played on with classic TV theme songs, including Get Smart and, for Jodie Foster’s appearance near the end of the night to present the Best Drama Actress Award to Succession‘s Sarah Snook, the theme to The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. A six-year-old Jodie used to beat up young Eddie (Brandon Cruz) on the understated late-’60s/early ’70s sitcom.
The night was a boomer’s delight, but perhaps that is another reason for the low overall audience numbers, especially among 18-49 year old’s. If you’re 30 and under, you have no idea who Ally McBeal is (Calista Flockhart — Harrison Ford’s wife), let alone Eddie’s Father (Bill Bixby).
2 Comments
The Bills game ended well before the Emmys started. It was an awful PHILLY Tampa game that was a blowout that went head to head vs it and still smashed it
That is true but the awful game still drew 17 million viewers.