Emmys ratings: The risky move to a Monday telecast draws solid 15.6 million

Well, it does appear as though we have a final national number for the 66th annual Primetime Emmys ... and it's not an ugly one at all: 15.6 million.

That's only about two points below last year's football-fed telecast on CBS, so NBC has to be thrilled with this. Fact is, the move to Monday was a risk: Viewers could have ignored the big show, but there was certainly a groundswell of interest in the Robin Williams tribute. (NBC even promoted Billy Crystal's tribute with in-program teases -- highly unusual, but a key indicator that millions were coming for that, and the network knew it). That alone may have made the difference.

On the negative side of the ledger, this is only about two million more viewers than the middling averages the Emmys had been posting in prior years, or before last year's CBS telecast. The hard fact remains: While many of us love the Emmys -- and I certainly count myself among the devotees -- the vast majority of us don't. They remain an awards show without the enormous appeal of the Grammys or the Oscars. And for an industry that is in the midst of a golden age, that is a strange paradox indeed. 

But 15.6 million is nothing to sneeze at; how about a Monday in the dead of August next year, too?