Last night was a big night for cheesy monologues, heartfelt acceptance speeches, and Big Bird colored dresses. With the Emmys going on, it was pretty hard to remember last night was a big night for NFL football, too, that is, unless you happen to be almost any U.S. male citizen or Baltimore Ravens jersey-owning woman or child. In which case, I probably need to point out that the Emmys aired last night. Football fans really needn’t have worried. While the Emmys did quite well in yesterday's ratings, they were no match for the Baltimore Ravens versus the New England Patriots game.
Sunday Night Football produced 19.8 million viewers during last night’s seriously epic game. In the 18-49 demographic, the Patriots/Ravens game brought in an 8.1 rating on NBC. The Emmys' numbers on ABC, on the other hand, were good, but not great enough to top Sunday Night Football. According to THR, although the early Nielsen numbers are off due to the Emmys airing live at 5 p.m. PST and 8 p.m. ET, the numbers won’t be enough to crush football.
On the bright side, TV Line is estimating the numbers will be close to last year’s telecast, and is stating the show was probably up in total viewers, but down when it comes to the coveted 18-49 demographic. Regardless of the Emmys losing out to football, they still did pretty well on an otherwise thankless night for television. Fox and CBS were both in reruns, with the former incurring around 3.4 million viewers for animated repeats and CBS nabbing 11.4 million for its repeat fodder. I don’t know how CBS does it, but those numbers on reruns are impressive, and only likely to jump much higher next Sunday when Elementary premieres. It's a good thing ABC has Revenge moving to Sundays, and I hope this year's Emmy hosts will still continue to compete.
photo credit @ABC.
