Yesterdays Annual Emmy Awards had its fair share of surprises and record braking moments. HBO’s Game of Thrones walked away with total of 38 wins, making it the current record holder for most Emmy wins by a scripted primetime series. Rami Malek, star of USA’s Mr.Robot, won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, becoming the first non-white actor to win the award in the past 18 years. One record that they did not want to break this year was the record for Lowest Emmy ratings, but in order to keep the historic night rolling, they went ahead and broke that one too.
According to Vulture, the 68th Annual Emmy Awards gained an average of 11.3 million viewers, dropping 5% from the previous all time low which was the year before. Marking an unfortunate trend for the show. What is even worse is the devastating 20% drop in viewers under the age of 50, with only an average of 2.8 million tuning in compared to last years 3.6, painting an even worse picture for the future of the award show; if younger crowds aren’t watching now, growing up probably wont change that.
The Emmys had even worse ratings than the Billboard Music Awards this past May, which was on during an episode Game of Thrones, the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead, and and game three of the NBA’s Western Conference.
Though these numbers are disappointing, they are not at all unexpected. The Emmys air on a different network every four years, usually between ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS. Unfortunately for ABC, they do not have a a Sunday-afternoon football package like Fox and CBS. Once football viewers are done watching the game and need something else to grab their attention they will likely stick around and catch the Emmys since its already on. For ABC, they have to compete against NBC’s highly rated football package for views, and they do not get leftover viewers. Another huge factor is that, despite networks being homes to many of the nominees, overall network TV viewership is seeing a dip thanks to the rise of streaming services. With the young and old flocking to Netflix, its no surprise that the Emmy’s is seeing a decline, even though the love for shows is seeing a massive rise.