Unsurprisingly, viewership of the 39th annual
Daytime Emmy Awards dropped off considerably in its move to cable this year,
drawing just 912,000 total viewers to its premiere telecast on Saturday from
8-10 p.m. on HLN.
Last year's awards ceremony, which aired on CBS, averaged5.35 million total viewers on Sunday, June 19.
Besides the move from broadcast to cable, the telecast was also hurt by the
move to Saturdays, when HUT levels are much lower than on Sundays.
The HLN telecast drew 327,000 viewers in the target adults
25-54 demo, though it still ranked as the network's most-watched regularly scheduled non-news broadcast in total viewers and the demo. The cabler aired the awards ceremony five times in primetime over
Saturday and Sunday, earning a gross average audience of 2 million viewers.
Plans to televise this year's Daytime Emmys were finalized
rather last-minute with HLN signing on as the TV partner in May. Daytime
television has also undergone major changes in the last few years, with multiple
long-running soaps going off the air in favor of more cost-effective lifestyle
programming.
Full coverage of the Daytime Emmy winners can be found here.
