The Television Academy has announced its answer to the Emmys’ steady ratings decline.
The awards show will stream exclusively on Prime Video in 2027, the Academy announced on Tuesday. It will be the first time in the awards program’s 79-year history that it won’t air on television. The move comes after this year’s ceremony, hosted by Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay, shed almost a million viewers compared with last year’s ratings, the Associated Press reported.
Along with the ratings slump, Hargitay’s first-time turn as Emmys host drew lackluster reviews. The poor viewership was exacerbated by the first Monday Night Football game of the season, airing on ESPN between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos.
Last year’s Emmys, which broadcast on CBS, drew around 7.4 million viewers, according to the AP, and ABC drew 6.9 million when the awards show aired on the network in 2024. The lowest-rated ever was the January 2024 Emmys, which just 4.3 million people watched after the Writers’ Strike delayed the event for several months.
The move to streaming marks the Emmys first permanent home after rotating between CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC each year since 1995. This past year, the Actor Awards (formerly known as the SAG Awards) moved from cable TV to Netflix.
