TV audience for Emmy awards dives to all-time low but social media likes it

[September 24, 2019]  By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. television audience for the Emmy Awards show, celebrating the best of television, slumped to 6.9 million viewers, its lowest ever level, but the show was a hit on social media.

According to Nielsen ratings data on Monday, the TV audience dropped by more than 32% from last year's ceremony, which at the time was a record low of 10.2 million U.S. viewers.

The Emmy awards, broadcast live on Fox on Sunday, awarded its highest honors to medieval fantasy drama and fan favorite "Game of Thrones" and quirky British comedy "Fleabag."

The three-hour ceremony in Los Angeles was broadcast without a host against stiff competition from "Sunday Night Football" on NBC which drew the largest audience on Sunday with 16.3 million viewers.

Major award shows have been losing ground with the public in recent years, although the Oscars in February, which featured performances by rock band Queen and Lady Gaga, bucked the trend by rising some 10 percent to some 29.6 million U.S. viewers.

Yet Nielsen and Fox data showed that despite the slump in TV viewers, the awards show was the most social program across broadcast and cable television. Interactions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were up 11% over 2018, the data showed.

On Twitter, "Game of Thrones" was the most tweeted about show, followed by social justice drama "When They See Us," nuclear accident series "Chernobyl," "Fleabag" and thriller "Killing Eve."

Nielsen television ratings only count those watching at home, not in public bars, restaurants or other venues.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Gregorio)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.