Emmy Awards Dip in Early Ratings

Live Feed Home TV TV News NBC's telecast 78th annual awards fall by about 10 percent from the comparable number for the 2025 show on CBS. September 15, 2026 4:00pm Host Mariska Hargitay during the opening of the 78th Emmy Awards. Rich Polk/Variety via Getty Images Logo text The 78th Emmy Awards drew a somewhat smaller audience than the 77th awards, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. Early numbers for Monday’s telecast put the Emmys at 6.7 million viewers on NBC and other platforms, including Peacock. That figure may change some when final ratings are released Wednesday, but the Emmys are currently down about 10 percent from last year’s preliminary number. The 2025 awards averaged 7.42 million viewers in early ratings before adjusting up to a final same-day total of 7.59 million. A similar adjustment for this year’s awards would put the NBC/Peacock telecast in line with the 6.9 million viewers for the 2024 Emmys on ABC. The Emmys did improve from the last time they were on NBC in 2022; that broadcast averaged 5.92 million viewers. The NBC-only audience for Monday’s show is about 6.2 million, with the remaining 500,000 coming from Peacock and other digital platforms. Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay hosted the Emmys (which had their share of highs and lows), and Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay dominated the night with six wins: best comedy series, writing and directing for a comedy and acting honors for Matthew Rhys, Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root. Combined with eight wins from the earlier Creative Arts awards, Widow’s Bay set a record for most Emmy wins by a comedy series in a single year with 14. Apple TV also won the overall Emmys race with 28 awards. The 78th Emmys were the final awards under the Television Academy’s current deal with ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The academy is in talks with Prime Video to move the awards to the Amazon-owned streamer; every previous ceremony has aired on a broadcast outlet. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up