Record low viewership for Emmy Awards

September 19, 2018 at 5:00 a.m. | Updated September 19, 2018 at 1:45 p.m.

Lorne Michaels, center, and the cast and crew from "Saturday Night Live" pose backstage with the award for outstanding variety sketch series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Lorne Michaels, center, and the cast and crew from "Saturday Night Live" pose backstage with the award for outstanding variety sketch series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) - Television's biggest night wasn't that big. A record-low audience of just under 10.2 million people watched the awards show that kicked off a new television season Monday night.

The Nielsen company said that's down from the virtually identical audiences of 11.4 million from the past two years.

Michael Che and Colin Jost of "Saturday Night Live" hosted the awards show on NBC. Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel became the first show from a streaming service to win best comedy, while HBO's "Game of Thrones" was the top drama.

The dip in viewership follows a recent trend that also affected the Academy Awards and Grammys earlier this year.

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