Ratings for Emmy Awards 2022 — Audience Low for Emmys on NBC

The Primetime Emmy Awards‘ ratings “rebound” is over.

After ceasing a seven-year audience slide in 2021, this Monday’s telecast of TV’s biggest night drew just 5.9 million total viewers to NBC, down 24 percent from last time around to mark an all-time low.

In the demo, Monday night’s show pulled a 1.1 rating, down sharply from last year’s 1.8.

TVLine readers gave the telecast an average grade of “C,” while Kenan Thompson earned as “D” as host.

The Emmys’ previous all-time audience low, of 6.4 million, was set in 2020 by the first pandemic-era, virtual ceremony on ABC. Last year’s Emmycast, on CBS, improved 16 percent on that nadir.

The last time NBC hosted the ceremony, in 2018 and also on a Monday night, the audience totaled 10.2 million — which at the time was a historic low.

Looking at this year’s other awards shows, the Oscars surged 60 percent (to 16.6 million viewers), the Grammys were up a tick (with 8.9 million viewers) and the Tony Awards audience (3.9 million) grew.

Offering not-insignificant competition for the Emmys was ABC’s share  of the Monday Night Football match-up between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, which averaged 8 million total viewers on ABC — but drew nearly 20 million overall, marking the most-watched MNF game since 2009.

Monday night’s only other fresh broadcast fare, Fox’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics finale, ticked up to 1.6 mil and a 0.3.

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The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution.