DOUBLE DOSE OF EMMYS ON WEST COAST SAVES THE DAY

The decision by NBC and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to air this year’s Emmy awards show live coast-to-coast not only didn’t hurt the telecast’s ratings, but it apparently improved them. Daily Variety reported today (Tuesday) that Nielsen combined the “unduplicated viewership” of the live West Coast telecast with the taped repeat that aired in primetime, which brought total viewers to 13.50 million, a tad above last year’s 13.47 million. Without those additional viewers, the telecast would have set a ratings low for the annual event; with them the Academy could boast that it had attracted the biggest audience in four years. Indeed, among the major markets, the combined ratings in Los Angeles and San Francisco represented the highest in the country for the telecast. The results were particularly remarkable given the fact that the awards show aired three weeks earlier than usual in order to avoid conflict with NBC’s Sunday Night Football commitment to the NFL. Late August ordinarily produces some of the lowest ratings of the year for each of the TV networks.