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Emmy Awards Ratings Hit Disastrous Low: Just How Many People Watched?
Viewers would rather watch TV than a ceremony honoring the best it has to offer.
Ratings for Sunday night's Emmy Awards tied an all-time low, with only 11.4 million people tuning in, Deadline reports. But you don't have to travel back in time too far to find the year it matched — that would be 2016 when Jimmy Kimmel hosted.
Stephen Colbert hosted this year's broadcast on CBS and, despite a plethora of watercooler moments (Sean Spicer crashed the show, the band played off Sterling K. Brown, Donald Glover and Lena Waithe made history and Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin reunited) the ceremony fell on deaf ears, or, perhaps more appropriately, blind eyes.
The dwindling viewership continues an alarming trend. Prior to last year, 2015 had been the record for lowest ratings. Clearly, something needs to be done to jolt people into watching.
And while this year's affair went head-to-head with ratings titan Sunday Night Football, it's hard to pinpoint the origin of the awards show's woes, considering the consistent downturn it faces and the fact that football tends to appeal to a different demographic.
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