NBC PUNTS EMMYS TO MONDAY NIGHT

For the first time in 38 years, the Primetime Emmy Awards will air on a Monday night rather than on a Sunday, NBC announced Tuesday. It will also air in August, rather than September. The four major networks air the awards annually on a rotating basis, and when it came to be NBC’s turn in 2006 and 2010, it also moved the awards telecast to August. The reason: Sunday Night Football. While other networks are able to preempt their regularly scheduled programs on Sunday nights, NBC is bound by the NFL schedule and cannot. TV Academy President Lucy Hood said on Tuesday, “Each year it is the responsibility of the host network to schedule the Primetime Emmy Awards. With NBC, there is the added element of the NFL schedule, which typically pushes the date back into late August.” NBC does not air preseason games on Sundays in August. Nevertheless, the move to Monday night — August 25 — comes as something of a surprise. The question arose: if NBC was going to move the awards show to Monday night anyway, why not do so in September? Could the NFL be calling the shots, given the fact that, if it was carried then, it would compete against Monday Night Football on ESPN?