The 2026 Emmy Awards saw a notable decline in television viewership, with approximately 6.7 million viewers tuning in to the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards hosted by Mariska Hargitay. The figure represents a roughly 12% drop from the 7.42 million viewers who watched last year’s ceremony, with the NBC telecast also facing competition from Monday Night Football.
via The Wrap:
The 78th annual ceremony, which broadcast live from Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater on Monday, brought in 6.7 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to preliminary Nielsen figures. This story will be updated once final numbers land.
That’s down 11.7% from the 7.59 million viewers brought in by the 77th annual awards ceremony last year, which debuted across CBS, Paramount+ and other platforms and marked the most-watched Emmys since 2021, the last time it aired on CBS. The 2026 show, however, was up 10% among total viewers when compared to NBC’s last Emmys telecast in 2022.
For reference, last year’s Emmys scored an initial viewership of 7.42 million and was eventually adjusted to 7.59 million viewers. Using the initial viewership comparison, ratings would be down nearly 10%.
It’s worth noting that the 2026 ceremony took place on a Monday night, switching from the traditional Sunday to accommodate NBC’s Sunday Night Football, though Monday’s show still competed with the NFL, including the Chiefs-Broncos game that kept Taylor Swift from attending the Emmys.
