TUNED OUT: Emmy’s Telecast Lowest Viewership In History As Audiences Continue To Abandon Award Shows

If you watched the snore fest known as the Emmy Awards this year, you were among a small group, as rating for television’s big night were the lowest in the awards show’s history.  Just 5.9 million viewers tuned in to watch wokeness and preaching, a far cry from its heyday in 2000 when 21.8 million viewers tuned in. Emmy hasn’t hit double-digits since 2018, when 10.2 million decided to watch the show that never seems to end.

This year’s host was SNL cast member Kenan Thompson, who was brought on to attract a younger, more diverse crowd.  However, the coveted demographic of adults aged 18-49 weren’t swayed to watch, and the Emmy’s scored just 1.0 among that group, the lowest score ever received.

According to the New York Post, part of the problem for awards shows is gaining and maintaining audience market share amid increased competition for viewers eyes. Streaming apps and a broad and robust social media world makes it harder for producers of the Emmys and other award shows to find a cohesive audience. With so many different shows on a variety of platforms, it is difficult to muster interest in a fractured awards show presenting honors to actors that are not household names.

If you didn’t watch but just have to know what happened on the 2022 Emmy Awards broadcast on NBC, the Post lists the highlights…and lowlights:

In what sounds like a groan-worthy stint, Thompson began the show with a song-and-dance number alongside backup dancers, moving to remixes of popular TV show theme songs. The theme songs of “Friends,” “Law & Order” and “Game of Thrones” were among the wild and wacky mix.

#Hollypeds This is about you and how demeaning you are to the what we’re fans. Lowest level of watchers ever. No lame excuse, face you do hate the rest of Americans.

Nolte: Woketard Emmys Collapse to All-Time Low of 5.9M Viewers https://t.co/wHwrJdMU4J

— Bugsbunny2062 (@bugsbunny2163) September 14, 2022

The Post continues: “Highlights of this year’s show included “Abbott Elementary” actress Sheryl Lee Ralph’s singing Dianne Reeves’ “Endangered Species” during her acceptance speech, and “White Lotus” star Jennifer Coolidge’s chaotic, but on-brand speech, cut too short.”

A show I’ve never heard of on HBO called “The White Lotus” won all five of the categories in which it was nominated, including Coolidge’s win. HBO’s popular and heralded drama “Succession,” also won for Outstanding Drama, and the Jason Sudeikis-helmed show on Apple TV+ “Ted Lasso” won for Outstanding Comedy series, shutting out the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC.

The Television Academy played CeCe Peniston’s song “Finally” as she made her way onto the stage, possibly a joke that the 61-year-old finally scored her first Emmy after years in the biz.

In a TMI moment, Coolidge told the audience that, “I just want to say I took a lavender bath today right before the show and it made me swell up inside my dress and I’m having a hard time speaking.” But producers wouldn’t let her finish her words as she was cut off mid-speech by the music prompting her to leave the stage.

“Wait, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” [Coolidge] protested to the audience’s delight, thanking more people over the music. “Wait, hold on,” she begged as the music changed to the more fun, up-tempo tune “Hit the Road Jack,” to which she shimmied at the microphone before finally exiting the stage.

And oppressed singer Lizzo won the top prize for Outstanding Competition Program for the Amazon series “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” a documentary about her search for backup dancers. In her acceptance speech, she said, “When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media — someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me. If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I’d be like, ‘You’re going to see that person, but b***h, it’s going to have to be you.’”