Primetime Ratings: Emmys Drop Against Football

The Emmy Awards on Fox saw its ratings fall Sunday, as Fox came in third on the night. NBC won the night with football. NBC had a 4.5 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 20 share. In second was CBS at 1.8/8.

Football Night in America grew 16% to 2.2 on NBC and the pregame went up 7% to 4.8. Rams versus Browns scored a 5.4, a tenth of a point better than Eagles-Falcons last Sunday.

CBS had a football overrun leading in to 60 Minutes, which grew 45% to 1.6. Big Brother fell 17% to 1.0. An NCIS: Los Angeles repeat followed.

Fox had a 1.4/6 for the night. The Emmys Red Carpet special rated a 1.4 and the Emmys a 1.5. The show did not have a host. HBO’s Game of Thrones got top drama and Amazon’s Fleabag won top comedy. The Emmys did a 2.4 last year on NBC, when the telecast ran on a Monday. Michael Che and Colin Jost of Saturday Night Live hosted.

CBS did a 2.5 with the Emmys in 2017, which were up against Sunday Night Football. ABC rated a 2.5 with the telecast in 2016.

ABC did a 0.5/2 Sunday. An America’s Funniest Home Videos rerun led into Celebrity Family Feud, which was down 25% at 0.6. The finales of $100,000 Pyramid and To Tell the Truth got a 0.5 and 0.4, respectively, both down a tenth of a point.

Telemundo did a 0.4/2 and Univision a 0.3/1. On Telemundo, Exatlon Estados Unidos did a flat 0.4 across two hours and El Secreto de Selena got a flat 0.3.

On Univision, it was 0.3s for Aqui Y Ahora, the Reina de la Cancion premiere and Cronicas. Aqui and Cronicas were level with last week

The CW rated a 0.2/1 with repeats.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.