• by Wayne Friedman , September 18, 2007

Looking for excitement over the new TV season? Don't stare at the Emmy Awards program for any evidence.

Fox's Emmy Awards show yielded a preliminary 4.3 rating on Sunday night among 18-49 and just 13.1 million viewers. That would be almost a full rating point lower than a year ago--5.1--and 3 million fewer overall viewers than in 2006. When ratings are finalized, it could place the broadcast as the lowest ratings ever for the TV award event.

Fox didn't even win the night. Those honors went to NBC and its now-sturdy Sunday night player "Sunday Night Football." "SNL" took in a 5.6 rating among 18-49 viewers.

NBC won the night with a 4.8 rating to Fox's 4.3. CBS was next at a 2.8/8; ABC fourth at 2.0/5; Univision fifth at 0.8/2, and CW sixth at 0.5/1. Still, considering the competition, Fox didn't do too bad.

Fox became the first network to air the Emmys opposite a regular season NFL game since it moved from cable. Its preliminary 10.5 household rating would be exactly the same number it pulled in a year ago when it ran on NBC. NBC aired the Emmys August 27, right before it launched its "Sunday Night Football" program.

"That's not bad considering the competition," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director for Horizon Media. Not only that, but Adgate noted that ESPN had a strong Major League Baseball game--a late-season contest between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees--that impacted the Emmys.

The lowest-rating Emmys to date occurred in 2004 on ABC, when it hit bottom with a 9.4 household rating and a 4.6 rating among 18-49 viewers. That year, it took in 13.8 million total viewers.