Can football really benefit the Emmys? It's hard to think of massive events that target more different demographics, but with the New York Jets-Buffalo Bills game bleeding into the scheduled Emmy broadcast for a few minutes, the guys in helmets and pads apparently gave a big boost to the fancy folks in evening gowns and tuxes. According to The Hollywood Reporter the early ratings for this year's Emmys are up over last year, with a 4.8 rating among 18-to-49-year-olds and around 16.3 million viewers. By some estimates that's 30% over last year, and the show's best ratings since 2006.
With a few minutes of that rating actually coming from football, we don't know yet how much credit to give to the Emmys themselves for that bump, especially given some baffling choices, a super-sized three hour and 15 minute runtime, and a generally lackluster performance from host Neil Patrick Harris (who really wanted to kick off the show by watching NPH locked inside a torture box, Booth Jonathan style?) But by spreading the wins around the Emmys managed to reach out to a lot of different fan bases -- congrats on that Merritt Wever win, you dozens of Nurse Jackie fans!-- and even the people who bailed to watch Breaking Bad live could be happy with the end, when Vince Gilligan and his fantastic Southern accent took the stage to accept the show's first-ever award for Best Drama Series. Having Dean Norris looking ecstatic and very alive onstage was just a cherry on top.
We've already run down our favorite moments from the Emmys, from Tony Hale holding Julia Louis-Dreyfus's purse in a nod to their Veep characters to Edie Falco's tribute to James Gandolfini, and if you missed the broadcast and just want to catch up on who won, you can click here for the full winners. Let us know what you thought of the show in the comments!
(Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com)
