After last year’s dismal showing, the Emmy Awards bounced back on both CTV and CBS on Sunday, thanks to solid hosting duties from How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris.
Faced with tough competition from a monster NFL game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, the annual TV spectacle raked in two million viewers in Canada – up from 1.5 million last year. (All numbers 2+ unless otherwise indicated.) It aired opposite a selection of reruns on Global.
The show again featured big wins for AMC’s Mad Men and NBC’s 30 Rock, seen here on Citytv and via iTunes, respectively.
Over on CBS, the Emmys grabbed 13.3 million viewers to make it the most-watched telecast since 2006 – and beat out last year’s 12.2 million showing on ABC, according to Variety. Harris received critical acclaim for his performance, which included a jovial song-and-dance number to kick off the show.
But, in the US, football still reigned supreme on Sunday, with the prime-time telecast of the Cowboys/Giants matchup averaging 22 million viewers on NBC, while 647,000 Canucks tuned in to CTV sister station TSN.
Earlier in the day, TSN scored a record 1.1 million viewers for its broadcast of the Canadian Football League game between the Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders at 4 p.m. The nail-biter – which featured a late touchdown to grant Edmonton a 31-27 victory – became the highest-rated regular season CFL game ever.
Meanwhile, last week also saw the return of Survivor on Global, which kicked off its 19th edition in Samoa with 3.1 million viewers on Thursday at 8 p.m. It was the biggest premiere for the reality show in six seasons, according to the broadcaster.
Survivor won the night and grew its audience by 45% in the 18-to-49 demographic versus last fall’s Survivor: Gabon premiere. Its closest competitor, CTV’s The Vampire Diaries, averaged 591,000 viewers in 18 to 49, versus 1.6 million for Survivor.
The veteran reality series will face a tougher opponent this week as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation returns on CTV, which will bump Vampire Diaries to 7 p.m.
From Playback Daily
