TV Bulletin Board (Thurs., Sept. 26) -- Emmy ratings outnumber critical slams
09/26/13 14:49
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Sunday night’s 65th annual prime-time Emmy Awards telecast on CBS outflanked its critics by rolling up the show’s biggest national Nielsen numbers since 2005.
The three-hour, 11 minute salute to television’s finest averaged 17.76 million viewers, easily outdrawing last year’s ceremony (13.26 million). Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, who participated in not one but two lengthy onstage production numbers, the program also showed increases in three key audience demographic groups -- 18-to-34-year-olds, 18-to-49-year-olds and 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS’ 2005 Emmy telecast, which aired in August and didn’t have to compete against NBC’s potent Sunday Night Football, drew 18.6 million viewers. But this year’s Emmy ceremony benefited in part from a substantial lead-in audience watching the closing minutes of a close New York Jets-Buffalo Bills game on CBS. The game ended two minutes before Emmy’s scheduled 7 p.m. (central) start time, although a subsequent bloc of commercials pushed it back a few minutes.
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Renewal notices: HBO has green-lighted a Season 5 of Boardwalk Empire, whose fourth season fired up on September 8th. And FX has committed to a Season 2 of The Bridge, which will have its Season 1 finale on Wednesday, Oct. 2nd.
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