Bleepin' Emmys Lose Audience

Viewers bleeped the Emmys.

TV's biggest night—of muted moments, that is—potentially scored its worst-ever ratings, preliminary Nielsen Media Research numbers show.

The three-hour-plus Fox telecast, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, averaged an estimated 13.1 million. If the number holds, that'll mean Sunday's show lost nearly 20 percent of the Emmy audience from last year's presentation on NBC, which itself lost 13 percent of the Emmy audience from the 2005 show on CBS.

Put it all together, and Emmys viewership looks to be down 30 percent in just two years. As recently as 2000, the Emmy Awards pushed itself above the 20 million viewer mark.

Fewer viewers or no, the Emmys was its usual headline-generating self. This time, the biggest story, aside from upset wins in the acting categories, was the quietest story. Fox censors hit the mute button and/or cut away from a shot at least three times to sanitize the telecast for the audience's protection.

Presenter Ray Romano got the silent treatment for joking that Kelsey Grammer was [blanking] his onetime TV wife, Patricia Heaton, on Grammer and Heaton's new Fox show, Back to You. Emmy-winner Sally Field, of ABC's Brothers & Sisters, earned it for uttering the word "goddamned" in the midst of an antiwar-tinged acceptance speech. Katherine Heigl, pronounced Hi-gle, as the Grey's Anatomy star corrected the offscreen Emmy announcer in one of the show's other gaffes, prompted a cutaway camera shot when she could be seen uttering "s--t" upon hearing her name read (correctly) as the winner of the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emmy.

"Some language during the live broadcast may have been considered inappropriate by some viewers," Fox said in a statement Monday. "As a result, Fox's broadcast standards executives determined it would be appropriate to drop sound during those portions of the show."

At least one show feed also saw video drop out during the bleeped-out sections.

In the backstage pressroom Sunday night, there was more griping by The Sopranos' Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico over James Gandolfini's upexpected loss to Boston Legal's James Spader than there was by anyone else over the handiwork of the Fox censors. From politically attuned comic Jon Stewart to Field herself, the Emmy honorees refused to pick a fight with the mute button.

"Good. I don't care. I have no comment other than, 'Oh, well.' That's my comment," Field told reporters. "I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world and let their work be seen and valued."

Romano and Heigl were unavailable for comment in the pressroom as neither put in an appearance. Presenters like Romano rarely, if ever hold postshow press conferences; winners such as Heigl almost always do.

Romano checked out of the Emmys "immediately" following his bit at the beginning of the show, the Associated Press reported. The wire service noted that the former Everybody Loves Raymond star was last seen spotted "wearing dark glasses," and exiting Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium via a back door.

Prior to Sunday, Emmys' ratings low came in 2004, when a Garry Shandling-hosted telecast on a ABC averaged 13.9 million viewers.

Sunday's telecast ratings seemed to suffer, in part, from a bad case of Sunday Night Football.

For the first time in Emmy history, the show went head-to-head (in some time zones) with broadcast network-aired NFL action. (Before moving to NBC in 2006, the Sunday Night Football franchise belonged to cable's ESPN.) Sunday's Sunday Night Football, pitting the San Diego Chargers against the New England Patriots' videographers, averaged an estimated 13.3 million from 8-11 p.m. Fox, however, said it won the overall prime-time night, from 7-11 p.m.

Seacrest, meanwhile, fared better in reviews than the Emmys fared in the ratings, which is to say the American Idol host's notices weren't historically bad.

Picked apart by some pundits sight unseen, owing to his lack of comedy credentials, Seacrest was: "inoffensive," if "a bit too low-key," per Variety; and smart to have "disarmingly tweaked himself as a first-time Emmy host," per the Detroit Free Press.

Other critics weren't as mild. The Kansas City Star said Ellen DeGeneres' presenting bit left it wishing that she, and not the "ill-suited" Seacrest, were the host. The Huffington Post's Ken Levine called the opening monologue "painful." The Los Angeles Times didn't even think there was an opening monologue, asking if the typically busy Seacrest was "too fatigued" to do one.

In the can't-win department, Seacrest was faulted for being offstage perhaps even more than he was faulted for his onstage work.

Overall, the show was deigned: "acceptable, though unspectacular" by the Hollywood Reporter; and "fast-moving and relatively painless," but ultimately forgettable, by Variety.

The show's in-the-round presentation was lauded by critics, although disliked by the unlucky Emmys-goers, including Spader, who got stuck staring at people's backs all night.

Seacrest's full-regalia Henry VIII routine was routinely dissed by critics, while the show's Roots tribute was routinely praised.

Speaking to E! News on Sunday night, Seacrest, who cohosted E!'s live red carpet arrival coverage before seeing to his prime-time work for Fox, weighed in with his own critique. (E! Online is a division of E! Networks.)

"It was a good show," Seacrest said. "There was some great laughs from other people, which is nice, and some good wins."

Asked if he intended to watch the Emmy telecast when he got home, Seacrest joked (perhaps), "I haven't been home in five years."

Check out our ultimate coverage of the 2007 Primetime Emmys.