The 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Andy Samberg, had a record low of 11.9 million viewers, the lowest in the history of the awards ceremony, CNN reports.
Last year the Emmys aired on a Monday night in late August and had a total of 15.6 million viewers. The lower ratings this year could partly be due to the fact that the awards had to compete with NBC’s Sunday Night Football, a tasty fixture that pitted the Green Bay Packers against the Seattle Seahawks in a rematch of last year’s NFC Championship game.
The Nielsen rating for the 67th Annual Emmy Awards was a 3.6, which is 14% below last year.
The low viewership is unfortunate considering it was a momentous night for television. Jon Hamm, who has been nominated 16 times, finally won his first Emmy. More importantly, Viola Davis became the first African-American woman to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama series.
Although the awards didn’t have a huge number of television viewers, they received a lot of attention on social media. There were 1 million tweets about the Emmys with over 188 million views. The most tweeted moment was about Davis’ historic win for her role on ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder.”