The Emmys may have been a major disappointment last night in quality, but apparently that (and Breaking Bad 's competing penultimate episode) didn't stop people from tuning in anyway. According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS's broadcast of the Neil Patrick Harris-hosted Emmy award show last night pulled in the best numbers since 2006, with ratings up in double digits compared to last year.
Though final ratings will be released later today, Zap 2 It posted some of last night's preliminary broadcast ratings: According to the site, the Emmys pulled in about 18.25 million viewers in the 8 p.m. hour, followed by 15.1 million in the 9 p.m. hour, and 12.5 million in the 10 p.m. hour. They were only bested by Sunday Night Football's broadcast of the Bears/Steelers game, which — unsurprisingly — pulled in a massive 19.9 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour and 16.9 million in the 10 p.m. hour.
While this is good news for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences this year, it remains to be seen whether or not the uptrend will continue for the 2014 broadcast — it's hard to see how that show, being as boring as it was, will convince anyone to tune in next year to waste another three hours of their life. Their only hope would probably be getting Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host, because let's be real, those few minutes they were on screen was the best part of the whole damn thing:
