Emmy Ratings Hold Steady for NBC

Awards show mostly even with last year in adults 18-49, viewers

By Marisa Guthrie & Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/30/2010 11:28:13 AM

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The 62^nd Primetime Emmy Awards topped a preseason football game on Fox for the ratings win Sunday night (Aug. 29), according to live plus same day viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research. 

The Emmys, which aired from 8-11 p.m. on the East coast and also aired live coast-to-coast, scored a 4.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to time zone-adjusted fast-national Nielsen numbers. That is just behind last year's 4.2 rating, which aired on CBS in late September. The 2010 awards were moved up to August to accomodate NBC's broadcast of Sunday Night Football, but the telecast stayed on par in total viewers, with 13.50 million tuning in last night vs. 13.47 million in 2009.

In head-to-head competition, Fox earned a 2.9 rating. The Emmys easily won the night among total viewers with 10.5 million followed by Fox with 7.7 million and CBS, which aired Big Brother and reruns of Undercover Boss and CSI: Miami, with 6.6 million viewers.