• by Wayne Friedman , September 23, 2008

TV viewers have seen it all before--which may explain why the Emmy Awards show recorded their lowest viewership numbers in history.

 

The show on ABC earned a mild Nielsen Media Research 3.8 rating/9 share among 18-49 viewers, 12% below last year's historical low. Last year on Fox, the show earned a 4.3/11, with 12.95 million viewers overall.

While it didn't help that the awards were on against a strong NFL football matchup--the Dallas Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers on NBC--the show had similar strong competition of a NFL game a year ago, when a game pulled in a 5.5 rating. This year. NBC pulled in an 8.5/20 for the game and a 6.7/17 for the night, to easily take the win.

Critics didn't help matters either; they derided the idea of the event being hosted by five major reality hosts before it aired. After the fact, critics slammed the opening entertainment bits as being less than funny.

ABC had no help for the Emmy with its lead-in. At 7 p.m., "Jimmy Kimmel's Big Night of Stars" earned a slim 1.2/4, also down 12% from last year's show. ABC was way back in second place for the night at a 3.2/8.

CBS came in after ABC. It grabbed some strong NFL ratings from its late-afternoon game that spilled over into prime-time, gaining a 7 rating among 18-49 viewers. After that, "60 Minutes" earned a respectable 3.1/9 on the night, considering the competition. This left CBS at a 2.8/7 for its night average.

Fox was behind CBS at a 2.2/6 for several repeats of its comedies "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." Univision was fifth at 1.0/3 and CW sixth at 0.6/2.