The 2025 Emmys drew highest ratings in four years

It's the first time the Emmys had two consecutive years of growing viewership in more than a decade.

By Mary Kate Carr  |  September 15, 2025 | 6:40pm
Photo: Danny Moloshok/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Content Services
TV News Emmys 2025
The 2025 Emmys drew highest ratings in four years

The Emmy Awards are trending upwards. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 2025 Emmy Awards was the highest-rated Emmys in four years, drawing 7.4 million viewers. That’s an 8% increase from the previous year, which brought in 6.9 million viewers, and broke a streak of all-time low viewership for the awards. Per THR, this is the first time in more than a decade the Emmys saw consecutive years of audience growth. So despite host Nate Bargatze recommending that winners save their thank-yous for social media because “more people are going to see it there anyway,” it turns out plenty of people still do watch the Emmys!

Variety points out that this is a particular win for CBS, because the past few years of lower ratings have been hosted by other networks (Fox, NBC, and ABC). None of those other networks ever topped CBS’ 2021 Emmys ceremony, which also drew 7.4 million viewers. The 2021 Emmys reversed a seven-year streak of declining ratings, cratering in 2020 with just 6.1 million viewers for the COVID-affected awards. Worse still was the Hollywood strike-affected 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, which drew an anemic 4.46 million viewers. (In fairness, that ceremony aired in January 2024 and had to compete against playoff football.)

The ceremony itself has received mixed reviews, especially pertaining to the divisive Boys & Girls Clubs of America bit. But the producers from Jesse Collins Entertainment felt happy with the show and the bit: “I think it worked out well,” Jesse Collins told Variety. “I mean, look, they came in expecting $100,000 and they ended with $350,000. So I think it was a win-win for the Boys & Girls Club.” The ratings success would suggest the producers (who were also nominated this year for their work on “Beyoncé Bowl” and the Super Bowl Halftime show) will be invited back to engineer next year’s ceremony. But nothing is yet set in stone: “Usually they take meetings in the spring,” Collins explained. “So that’s when we would go in and make our pitch.”

 
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