Primetime Emmy awards organizers move live show to Monday

[January 29, 2014]   LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — The Primetime Emmy awards, television's night of honoring its own, will be held this year on Monday, August 25, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and U.S. network NBC said on Tuesday, in a surprising move from the awards show's usual Sunday slot in late September.

The three-hour 66th Primetime Emmys will be aired live from coast to coast beginning at 8 p.m. EDT on NBC, which is owned by Comcast Corp. The organizers have yet to announce a host or producers of this year's show. The Primetime Emmys are U.S. television's top awards.

The change was made so that the awards show would not conflict with the network's "Sunday Night Football" show, an NBC spokesman said. "Sunday Night Football," a weekly show during the NFL season, averaged 21.7 million viewers for the 2013-14 season, the second-highest audience across U.S. television.

The Creative Arts Emmys, which presents awards in technical and production categories, will be held on Saturday, August 16. That show is usually televised at a later date — not yet announced.

Last year's Emmy awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, the co-star of the CBS hit comedy "How I Met Your Mother," drew 17.6 million viewers, who watched AMC's gritty drug drama "Breaking Bad" take home the top honor of best drama series.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Eric Kelsey and Jan Paschal)

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