Posted on 09/20/2004 8:31:32 PM PDT by Flavius
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ABC's telecast of the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards proved to be one of the least watched editions of the show in years, with 14 million viewers tuning in, according to preliminary figures on Monday.
Photo Reuters Photo
Reuters Photo Reuters Slideshow Slideshow: Emmy Awards
If those numbers hold up in final data to be reported Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, ABC's Emmy audience Sunday night would fall 3 million viewers shy of the low-rated 2001 show on CBS, which aired opposite the final game of the World Series (news - web sites).
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sunday's broadcast attracted the Emmys' smallest audience since the show aired in 1990 on the then-fledgling Fox network, averaging just 12.3 million viewers.
CBS managed to surpass ABC for Sunday night as a whole with its prime-time slate of "60 Minutes" and drama reruns, according to Nielsen, though CBS also benefited from a heavily watched football game that ran over into prime time.
Still, it was ABC's biggest Sunday night audience in about 18 months, not counting sports programs and the Academy Awards (news - web sites), the network said.
This year's three-hour show, hosted by comedian Garry Shandling, was dominated by HBO victories as gangster series "The Sopranos" finally won the coveted prize for best drama and the landmark production "Angels in America" clinched a record 11 Emmys for a miniseries.
The fact that the Emmys were swept by HBO, a premium cable network that reaches a fraction of the total U.S. television audience, may have dampened interest in this year's show.
ABC itself has struggled in the ratings in recent years, and executives at corporate parent the Walt Disney Co. have promised to turn around the loss-making network. ABC finished last season in fourth place behind its three biggest rivals in the ratings race for viewers aged 18 to 49.
The Emmy awards broadcast drew nearly 17.9 million viewers last year on Fox and 19.8 million in 2002 on NBC.
If I don't watch TV, why would I watch a show that honors what I didn't see?
People are sick of the Hollywierdos and the garbage they make for TV!
The Emmys were on?
Me neither, I haven't watched the Emmy's or the Oscars for 20-plus years.
I hope the Oscars telecast goes the same way.
I didn't watch the Emmys, preferring instead to watch Speed for the ten thousandth time.
Better than watching a hall full of actors probably ON that substance IMO.
They are all just lottery winners....
Glorified TV announcers is the best most should be able to do...
I would love to see the money that was spent to dress up these clowns to be donated to the US Veterans Medical Service...
Ie Emmy Awards,... all proceeds and overpaid actors fees will be going towards health benefits for wounded soldiers and their spouses…
All advertising money will be donated 100% to the families and wounded soldiers…
I bet if they proposed something like that and actually had a worthwhile cause to get the pretty faces all dressed , maybe more people would tune in…
Or how about this , Emmy awards trying to generate 250M in combined procedes for US Soldiers Veterans Medical facilities/care…
Ok you get the point…
No why do something that would actually help someone…
Oh and disclaimer for overzealous… in no fact am I condoning that market forces that allow these individual and networks to make astronomical amounts of monies for minimal work…
Ok done ranting…
Naw, all the moore-phodites will be watching their anti-hero get Best Picture, or something.
Angels in America ~ SchmAngels in America
Woody Allen once joked that "everyone else thinks New Yawkers are all Jewish Communist Homosexual Pornographers, I think that myself, and I live here!" But Tony Kushner, his politics and his tirades are once again the toast of show business - and everyone forgot the punchline.
Thank you everybody who tuned out.
I did not want to watch a gang of anti-American thugs have a big party honoring other anti-American thugs and creeps.
It looks like many shared my opinion. Thanks to all of you. Now, go out and boycott the sponsors of this pathetic show--these sponsors support anti-American activities.
Ah, what a shame. No one wanted to watch egocentric overpaid vacuous starlets fluttering their peacenik attitudes across a stage.
Gave up awards shows awhile ago, but since 2002 and their "chill wind" protestations I have made sure to avoid even catching a couple minutes surfing through the channels.
Yeah its glorified 3am gingtzu knife commercial show
Apart from gintzu knife commercial show being more entertaining..
So you give Britney and her marriage how many HOURS?
I know thank God I dont feel crazy that I really dont care what social engineers have in store for next fall..
Well the sad thing is that us not watching the dam. tv we still have in our head the fact that not talent multi bili or mili Britney is pretendig to be something again...
I really did not want that fact in my memory banks...
Sorry I think my spelling is off I dont have my glasses on... Cant see much... oh well
peace ...
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