Emmys Viewers Rebound from Strike-Delayed January Show’s Record Low

Tony Maglio
·2 min read

Sunday’s 76th annual Emmy Awards drew 6.87 million viewers on ABC, according to Nielsen, marking a 54-percent improvement over the prior Emmys telecast. It was the largest audience for the Emmys in three years.

The producers at Jesse Collins Entertainment, including Jesse Collins, can breathe a sigh of relief — not that they had a particularly high hurdle to clear.

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The January 2024 Emmys on Fox settled for 4.46 million total viewers, a record low. The audience for the off-cycle celebration was down substantially from the September 2022 Emmy Awards, which averaged 5.9 million viewers — a record-low for the show at the time. The unfortunately-timed January telecast opposed an NFL Playoffs game, which is just about as bad as it gets in terms of live-TV competition (Last night’s Emmys had a “Sunday Night Football” game on NBC to contend with, which is not unusual but not as devastating to the best-of TV ceremony’s ratings).

Originally, those 75th Emmy Awards were booked for September 18, 2023, but the ongoing WGA strike pushed that plan. Even when that finally ended about a week later, the show could not go on. After all, you can’t honor actors without… the actors: SAG-AFTRA’s own strike ended in November 2023.

As it were, Anthony Anderson ended up with the distinction as host of the lowest-rated Emmys in history — a record he still holds today.

Sunday’s Emmys, hosted by the father-and-son team of Eugene and Dan Levy, was dominated by FX (and the Hulu platform, practically speaking). Including the earlier-announced Creative Arts Emmy Awards, “The Bear” won 11 trophies and “Shōgun” won 18. All told, FX led the pack with 36 total wins.

Disney CEO Bob Iger had a lot to smile about (as you saw him doing many times on camera) these past two weekends: The Walt Disney Company owns FX, Hulu, and the broadcast-network home of the 76th Emmy Awards, ABC.

Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” won six Emmys; Iger’s perma-grinning teeth were likely a bit more gritted during those particular announcements.

If you missed all the fun the ho-hum telecast, the 76th Emmys are now available to stream on Hulu. IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers would probably advise you not to bother: he gave the telecast a D+ grade. In other words, the 76th Emmys probably wouldn’t win an Emmy at the 77th Emmys.

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