Emmys Hit Lowest Ever Viewership For a Major Awards Show, Fail to Make a Dent Against Sunday Night Football, NBA Playoffs

The 2020 Emmy Awards not only hit their lowest ever viewership on Sunday night, but also managed to score the lowest viewership for any major awards show in history, according to Nielsen.

The award show averaged a 1.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 6.1 million viewers total for ABC, dropping roughly 12 percent from last year’s total viewership. This year’s low ratings come after last year’s historic low for a top TV awards show, during which the host-less ceremony aired on Fox with a 33 percent decline from the previous year.

Last year was the first time the Emmys saw less than 7 million viewers, according to Deadline, but this year’s results barely cracked 6 million.

Host Jimmy Kimmel predicted the record low during an interview with Deadline: “I know everyone will get crazy when I say this, but this will probably be the lowest-rated Emmys of all time,” he said. “I would bet almost anything on it. Of course it will.”

Kimmel also took a few jabs at the show during his monologue:

“What the hell am I doing here? This is the year they decide they have to have a host?” he joked. “’Why?’ is a question I’ve been asked a lot this week. And I get it. Yeah, it might seem frivolous and unnecessary to do this during a global pandemic, but you know what else seems frivolous and unnecessary? Doing it every other year.”

This year’s low numbers can be attributed to the fact that the show was virtual due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Emmy Awards were also competing with Sunday Night Football and an NBA playoffs game, as the Los Angeles Lakers faced the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.