NBC has set the date for next year’s Emmy Awards early, in more ways than one. Nine months in advance, it’s announcing a date—of Sunday, August 29. NBC (which airs football on Sundays during the NFL season) notes, a bit defensively, that when it aired the Emmys in August 2006, it “was the highest-rated entertainment program of that summer. It still ranks as the highest-rated Emmy Awards telecast of the past four years.”
I’d make a snarky remark about NBC wanting as few people as possible to watch other networks pick up all the awards, but really, won’t 30 Rock still be collecting its mandatory hardware next season? Or should NBC not be liking its chances against Modern Family?
Excerpts from the release after the jump:
NBC will broadcast the “62nd Primetime Emmy® Awards” live on Sunday, August 29 (8-11 p.m. ET; other time zones delayed), it was announced today by Paul Telegdy, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, NBC and Universal Media Studios.
“NBC is excited to host television’s biggest night with the Primetime Emmy Awards,” said Telegdy. “Scheduling and announcing the telecast for August 29 this early in the awards cycle will give the Television Academy and NBC a head start on creative discussions.”
The first time NBC broadcast the Primetime Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006 — due to the scheduling of the network’s popular NFL Football franchise Sunday nights in September — it was the highest-rated entertainment program of that summer. It still ranks as the highest-rated Emmy Awards telecast of the past four years.
Nominations for the “62nd Primetime Emmy Awards” will be announced Thursday, July 8 at 5:40 a.m. (PT) from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, Calif.