Emmy ratings plummeted 20% from last year's award show

Things aren't looking good for Fox and the ratings for Sunday's Emmy awards telecast.

Variety reports that early numbers are showing a 20% drop for the awards show compared to last year. The overnight numbers show that the Emmys earned an 8.7 overnight rating with a 14 share from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the metered markets. Compared to the show's 10.9/18 rating from last year, it dropped 20%.

Fox's run of the Dallas-Philadelphia game ahead of the awards should have given the show a push in viewership, but it didn't do as well either and finished 20 minutes shy of the awards show.

NFL ended up having the biggest program of the night for NBC: "Sunday Night Football" earned a 16.3/27 rating.

The drop in ratings is surprising with all that was at stake on Sunday night. For example, Jon Hamm won his first Emmy for "Mad Men," Viola Davis became the first black woman to win for lead actress, and "Game of Thrones" won Best Drama for the first time.

Final numbers will arrive later on Monday.

All that said, last year's show was a hard one to beat. It was the second biggest overall audience for the Emmys in 8 years, attracting 15.6 million total viewers and averaged a 4.2 rating with the advertiser-c0veted adults between the ages of 18 and 49.