Summary Sunday's ceremony brought surprise best series wins for both "Game of Thrones" and "Veep"
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) The Emmy Awards show, television s biggest night, drew the smallest TV audience on record, despite big wins for HBO s popular medieval fantasy series "Game of Thrones."
Preliminary Nielsen ratings data on Monday showed that just 11.9 million Americans watched Sunday s Emmy Awards telecast which was broadcast live on Fox television in competition with NBC s "Sunday Night Football."
The Emmys TV audience was some 4 million fewer than the 2014 event, and the smallest in the award show s history. The top-rated Emmys in recent years was the 2013 show, where comedies "Modern Family" and drama "Breaking Bad" won the top awards and which drew 17.76 million viewers overall.
Sunday s ceremony brought surprise best series wins for both "Game of Thrones" - one of the most popular dramas on U.S. television - and HBO s satirical White House show "Veep."
It also made history when Viola Davis, star of "How To Get Away With Murder," became the first black woman in the 67-year history of the Emmys to take home the statuette for lead actress in a drama series.
The National Football League game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks on "Sunday Night Football" drew 23 million viewers.
