EMMY AWARDS’ AUDIENCE BECOMING INCREASINGLY MORE SELECTIVE: Emmys Ratings Fall as Awards Show Eyes End to Its Broadcast Era.

Monday’s Emmy Awards, aired Monday by NBC, posted a 9% decline in audience from the show’s 2025 viewership, marking what appears to be the end of the Emmys broadcast-network era.

According to Nielsen’s preliminary audience estimate, 6.7 million viewers watched the Emmys this year, down from the 7.4 million who tuned in last year.

While the viewership of awards shows has been treading downward in recent years, several factors complicate efforts to draw solid conclusions about the cause of this year’s drop in Emmys audience from 2025:

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If the Emmys do, indeed, move to Amazon, they will join other awards programs – such as the Oscars, SAG-AFTRA’s Actor Awards and the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards – who have signed deals to move to a streaming service.

One advantage of signing a multi-year deal with a single outlet is that the platform would have more incentive to promote the show, since doing so won’t benefit the competitor who gets the Emmys the next year.

So a streaming platform will be hosting an awards show dedicated to promoting network and cable TV shows? And note that the movie industry’s Academy Awards are moving to YouTube, the original streaming platform, in a couple of years as well: Failing Oscars Demoted to YouTube. “Starting in 2029, the irrelevant Oscars will have its annual irrelevant Academy Awards show broadcast on — lol — YouTube.”

As Steve wrote earlier today: Say Goodbye to Hollywood… If It Even Exists Anymore.